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Young People’s Work 
for Young People 

A Handbook of Interpretation and 
Method for the Epworth League 


By 

BLAINE E. KIRKPATRICK 

, < 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



SX<52,05 

,K5 


Copyright, 1924, by 
BLAINE E. KIRKPATRICK 


All rights reserved, including that of translation into 
foreign languages, including the Scandinavian 


\ 



Printed in the United States of America 

NOV 13 *24 

©CU£0875b 

I 


DEDICATED 


the Loyal Young People of My Congregations 
Whose Christian Devotion and Service 
Have Inspired My Faith in the 
Youth of To-day 






CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword. 7 

I. The Epworth League a Crusade for 

the World’s Youth. 13 

II. The Place of the Epworth League in 

the Church. 35 

III. The Local Chapter: The Working Unit 

of the Crusade. 57 

IV. The First Department: The Task of 

Building Christian Character. 91 

V. The Second Department: The Task of 

Winning a World . 136 

VI. The Third Department: The Task of 

Putting Social Sympathy Into Deed 175 

VII. The Fourth Department: The Task of 

Turning Leisure Into Profit. 212 

VIII. The Epworth League’s Widespread 

Relationships . 256 

Appendixes. 283 

Index . 287 















FOREWORD 


A great “Youth Movement” is on throughout the 
world. Some decry it as evidence of a degenerate 
age and are filled with gloomy forebodings at the 
possible outcome. Others welcome it as a “revolt” 
against a fixed and static civilization wherein 
wrongs and injustices, long intrenched and intoler¬ 
able, may have a chance to be righted. 

That there is such a movement, whatever its true 
interpretation, none will deny. It is on our hands. 
It cannot be ignored. Neither can it be suppressed. 
What is to be done about it? 

There is just one thing for the church to do—re¬ 
joice in it, thank God for it, and hasten to give the 
great Christ of youth his chance to lead it, to guide 
it,, and to utilize it, in his plans for a better world. 

This book is written in the faith that with 
Christ at the head, the present dynamic “Youth 
Movement” contains the potential power to make a 
“new heaven and a new earth.” It is written with 
the conviction that the most momentous issue now 
before us is to secure youth’s acceptance of Christ’s 
leadership. It recognizes also, however, that the 
chief move for that acceptance must come from 
within rather than from without the group of the 
world’s youth. 

These pages are therefore addressed not primarily 
to older workers with young people, but to the young 

7 


8 


FOREWORD 


people themselves. What they do for their own 
crowd will be vastly more important in their own 
development than what others do for them. 

The title which has been chosen—“Young Peo¬ 
ple’s Work for Young People”—is not original. It 
is a descriptive term that has long been applied to 
the Epworth League, and at once summarizes ap¬ 
propriately the genius of that organization and the 
point of view of this book. 

It is from this standpoint only that “young peo¬ 
ple’s work” may be estimated at its proper worth. 
There are those who look upon it as a species of 
make-believe, a kind of play that has value only in 
fitting them for the “real” tasks of life after they 
are thirty. On the contrary, “young people’s work” 
has an intrinsic value of its own, that makes it 
fully as important as any that is done by older peo¬ 
ple. 

This book, however, is not intended to be an 
encyclopedia of detailed method as to how such 
work should be done. Far more important than the 
mechanics of method is the vision of the task to be 
done and the passion to do it. The young Chris¬ 
tian’s effort in the service of Christ is like preach¬ 
ing—it is “a passion, a glory, an art, a life.” 
It would be as futile to attempt to provide a handy 
“ride of three” for youth’s expression of his devo¬ 
tion to Christ as it would to provide similarly for 
his love-making. If he can be shown the vision, 
and his heart be once kindled with the passion, 
some effective method will be found. 

Hence we have tried first of all to present an 


FOREWORD 


9 


interpretation, and only secondarily a method. And 
even the methods given are meant only to be sug¬ 
gestions, not to stifle originality, but as a starting- 
point for initiative. As we have occasion to say 
elsewhere in these pages: “The history of the Ep- 
worth League is rich with the story of the resource¬ 
fulness of young people and the spontaneous way in 
which the program has developed. If the League 
should now become a mechanical thing, with a cut- 
and-dried, ‘handed-down’ program, it would be a com¬ 
plete reversal of that very policy which has been its 
chief claim to uniqueness and distinction in the 
past. And the best plans and methods remain to be 
thought out yet. The experiences of other Leaguers 
in the past are valuable only as suggestions of what 
may be done. They cease to have value if they be¬ 
come stereotyped forms, and limit the freedom and 
initiative of each new crowd of youth.” 

A suggestion may be made as to the way in which 
this book may be studied. In Epworth League In¬ 
stitutes, where there are but five lesson periods for 
the class in Epworth League Methods, two or three 
alternatives may be suggested: 

1. For the first day, use Chapters I and II, with 
the entire class meeting together. For the second, 
third, and fourth days, divide the class into five 
groups, meeting simultaneously, under different 
leaders previously coached to guide the discussion. 
Group one would study for three days Chapter III, 
on The Local Chapter, especially discussing the task 
of the president, the secretary and the treasurer. 
Group two would study Chapter IV on the First 


10 


FOREWORD 


Department; Group three would study Chapter V 
on the Second Department ; Group four would study 
Chapter VI on the Third Department; and Group 
five would study Chapter VII on the Fourth De¬ 
partment. On the last day have all of the groups 
meet together to bring in findings and summaries 
of the separate discussions, and to close with a 
studj" of Chapter VIII. 

2. An alternative plan would be not to attempt 
to cover the entire book during one week, but per¬ 
haps to specialize on two departments, the one 
which happens to be the point of emphasis that 
year, and one other. The whole book would be 
covered in two or three years. 

3. In some cases where it is not thought wise to 
divide the class, but where it is desired to cover 
all material in outline form for all students, for the 
purpose of inspiring them to promote a similar 
study in their home chapter, it may be best to sketch 
rapidly through the entire book in one week. Chap¬ 
ters I, II, and III may be studied the first day, 
and then one day be given to each of the four de¬ 
partments. Chapter VIII may be omitted. 

In local chapter study classes, a six-weeks’ study- 
class course would prove profitable. Chapters I, 
IT, and VIII could be discussed for the first lesson, 
and one week be given to each of the other chapters, 
III, IV, V, VI, and VII. 

Where this text is used for Summer Schools of 
Religious Education, or for use in more extended 
courses in colleges and schools of theology, more 
careful study can be made of each phase of the sub- 


FOREWORD 


11 


ject, and much supplementary reading can be as¬ 
signed. 

This material has been written at high pressure 
in the midst of the exacting duties of a busy city 
pastorate. Only the generous and valuable assist¬ 
ance of many friends interested in young people’s 
work has made its completion possible. The fol¬ 
lowing grateful acknowledgments are hereby made 
to those who have assisted in gathering this ma¬ 
terial : 

To Dr. Charles E. Guthrie, general secretary of 
the Epworth League, who first suggested the prep¬ 
aration of the book, and whose inspirational leader¬ 
ship and counsel have been indispensable through¬ 
out. 

To Dr. Dan B. Brummitt, Mr. Warren T. Powell, 
and other writers in this field, whose books are freely 
quoted here, and who have put all young people in 
their debt. 

To President E. C. Hickman, of Kimball School 
of Theology, whose keen and far-sighted interest in 
young people led him to arrange in his school a 
course in Epworth League Methods for two succes¬ 
sive years, and to the students of these classes, 
whose class discussions and investigations greatly 
aided in evolving this material. 

To the young people of my own churches, and of 
many Epworth League Institutes where much of 
this material has been presented, whose personal 
experience in League work has greatly enriched 
these chapters. 

To the Rev. Jesse W. Bunch, who contributed 


12 


FOREWORD 


many valuable suggestions from his experiences 
among the Leaguers of Montana. 

To many scores of Epworthians from all parts of 
the United States who replied to a voluminous 
questionnaire on Epjyorth League Methods, from 
which a mine of practical and workable plans was 
made available. 

And most of all to my wife, who has patiently cor¬ 
rected the manuscript, and without whose wise 
counsel and warm encouragement at every step, this 
book could not have been completed. 

The Program of ‘‘Young People’s Work for Young 
People” evolved through more than a third of a 
century by the Epworth League has long passed 
the experimental stage. Where it has been properly 
understood and carried out with intelligence and 
devotion, it has been used in a strangely providen¬ 
tial way to lead multitudes of youth to an accept¬ 
ance of the leadership of Jesus Christ for their 
lives. 

If this book may aid, even a little, in giving him 
his chance to be Master of the present-day youth 
movement, or even to be more completely Master 
of a few of our own Methodist youth, that they in 
turn may help make him Master among the youth 
of the world, it will have more than repaid all ex¬ 
penditure of effort in its preparation. 

Blaine E. Kirkpatrick. 

March 1st, 1924. 

Salem, Oregon. 


CHAPTER I 


THE EPWORTH LEAGUE A CRUSADE FOR 
THE WORLD’S YOUTH 

“The Epworth League is Methodism’s greatest 
adventure.” So writes a young Epworthian from 
Illinois, seeking to put into words his own heartfelt 
conviction. Is such a statement merely the superla¬ 
tive and exaggerated utterance of a youthful en¬ 
thusiast at which we smile indulgently, but which 
we discount in the light of sober thinking? Or is 
it a definition that ought to be true, even if it isn’t, 
and in fact may be more nearly true than we think I 
The whole program of the Church of Christ may 
well be counted an adventure. The dream in the 
heart of a young Galilsean Peasant that this old 
world, scarlet-lmed with sin and torn apart with 
bitter prejudices and honeycombed with greed, could 
one day be transformed by his own message and be 
made into the kingdom of God, required a measure 
of faith that savors of high adventure. The fervor 
with which his band of followers took up his chal¬ 
lenge and fared forth upon their mission was like 
nothing so much as that exhibited in a thrilling and 
holy crusade. 

We to-day are living shamefully beneath them 
when it is anything less than that to us. ^The 
church has always been at her best when she has 
13 


14 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


ceased to be on the defensive and has gone forth to 
conquest. She has never tugged so irresistibly at 
men’s hearts as when she has forgotten to appeal 
to enlightened self-interest, and has called upon 
men to count not their lives dear in the crusade to 
save the world. Her whole program is a ‘divine 
adventure. 

But the very heart of that adventure is the en¬ 
listment of her own youth, that through them she 
may win the world. On her success here she must 
stake her own future. Any church that is not able 
to win and hold her own youth is doomed. And 
on her success here she must also stake her mission 
in the world. Without the enlistment of youth her 
hand of service must at last falter and become im¬ 
potent. The heart of her adventure is here. 

Many agencies join their forces to meet the needs 
of youth. The home and the school, of course, hold 
a place here in the building of character and intelli¬ 
gence which nothing else can supplant. The Sun¬ 
day school, in providing systematic instruction in 
morals and religion not only during youth but in 
the preceding period of childhood, renders a serv¬ 
ice whose value is incalculable. 

But the Epworth League, being the official young 
people’s organization of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, holds for our youth a unique and strategic 
place. It is the one organization in the church 
which is all their own. It is “of young people, by 
young people, and for young people.” It throws 
them upon their own initiative. If it fails, they are 
responsible. If it succeeds, theirs the joy of tri- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


15 


umph. And in the nature of the case, as we shall 
say more fully in another connection, it is just this 
sort of responsibility alone which is their salvation. 
No boy ever learned to swim by following the in¬ 
junction, “Hang your clothes on a hickory limb, 
but don’t go near the water.” The eaglet learns to 
fly only by being pushed out of the nest, and being 
compelled to try his wings. There is an incalculable 
and indispensable value, not always appreciated by 
older folks, in providing for young people an oppor¬ 
tunity to do things for themselves, even though the 
chief result for the time being seems to be blunder¬ 
ing and awkwardness. If youth is ever to be en¬ 
listed in this great Christian crusade, it will be 
largely through the appeal that youth makes to 
other youth and in the efforts which they exert on 
their own initiative in preparing themselves for 
their part in it. 

Such opportunity and appeal are afforded more 
fully in the Epworth League than anywhere else 
for Methodist youth. Why may it not therefore 
be named as Methodism’s greatest adventure? If 
the church has sometimes been strangely unaware 
of it, and if young people often have not awakened 
to it, it does not alter the fact that it should be so. 
To make it so increasingly and thereby to minister 
more adequately both to the needs of youth and of 
the church, is the challenge of the hour. 

The Epworth League’s program of “young peo¬ 
ple’s work for young people” has developed not by 
the dictation even of a “benevolent paternalism” 
from without, but by the spontaneous expression of 


16 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


life from within. It sprang into being in response 
to definite and insistent needs on the part of youth, 
and it has steadily evolved, step by step, as those 
needs have come to be understood. 

To describe the characteristics of the League’s 
program of to-day would be to recount the funda¬ 
mental needs of youth, and the way in which these 
needs are being met. 

The Needs op Youth and the League’s Reply 

1. First of all is youth’s need for wise guidance 
in his fascinating adventure on the highway from 
immaturity toward maturity. Every step he takes 
is for him over an untraveled road. Every sight 
that meets his eye is new. Every experience is 
strange. He is engaged in the intensely interesting 
business of becoming acquainted with his world. 
But the world in which he is to live is made up of 
more than one set of facts. There are certain 
obvious facts that he can hardly miss—facts about 
himself, his body, and the care of it; facts about 
other people, about the material world he lives in; 
facts of science, of geography, of history. But there 
are other facts not quite so obvious, but even more 
vastly important for him to know—facts about in¬ 
visible things, about ideals of right, about unseen 
resources, about prayer and God. To miss these 
facts is to doom oneself to mere fractional living 
and to miss that final completeness that we all 
crave. Illiteracy in the matter of common educa¬ 
tion has long been counted so unfortunate and in¬ 
tolerable that society is making every effort to re- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


17 


duce it to the minimum. Is it not high time we 
recognized more fully the tragedy of being illiterate 
in the realm of morals and religion? Here, then, is 
one of the most elemental needs of youth. 

The Epworth League makes haste to reply. Its 
program is an educational program. It helps to 
furnish that wise guidance which youth needs in his 
adventure toward maturity. It helps make him 
acquainted with the world of ideals and of spir- 
itul reality. Its study classes, its institutes, its 
devotional meetings, its Christian comradeship, its 
expressional activities, all have a great educational 
value. We will later discuss the relationship of 
the Epworth League’s educational program to that 
of the rest of the church. It is by no means a 
duplication or overlapping, but a unique and splen¬ 
did supplement, covering a field all its own in the 
religious education of youth. 

2. A second need of youth is the need for increas¬ 
ing self-direction. The child is governed from with¬ 
out. He accepts the word of his elder as final au¬ 
thority (usually). His opinions and decisions are 
made for him by those more wise and mature than 
himself. Even his religion is accepted on authority. 
But as the child emerges into the youth, the situa¬ 
tion becomes increasingly unsatisfactory. The de¬ 
sire for independence and self-direction begins to 
assert itself. He must form his own opinions, make 
his own decisions, determine his own destiny. This 
is as it should be. He cannot go on forever depend¬ 
ing upon the directions of others. It is highly im¬ 
portant both to himself and to society that some- 


18 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


where before maturity, he should achieve self-con¬ 
trol and personal responsibility. 

The opportunity for such achievement is afforded 
in a unique way in the Epworth League, for its 
program is primarily democratic. As we have al¬ 
ready indicated, it is all their own. It is not a “cut- 
and-dried” program, handed down to them, but it 
is theirs to work out on their own initiative. It 
develops capacity for self-government. 

On this point one Ohio Epworthian, giving his 
estimate of the League, writes, “For young peo¬ 
ple, it has no equal. The Sunday school is managed 
by a Board—mostly older people. If the older folks 
will keep hands off the League, advise and boost, 
but never crowd or dictate, the League can fit the 
boy and girl into their place for service. Of 
course they will fail or blunder at times, but they 
are learning to walk, and it is walking Christians 
the church needs to-day.” 

A Leaguer from Oregon writes: “It is an organ¬ 
ization wholly for young people, and it can there¬ 
fore do more toward winning and training young 
people for the Kingdom than any other church 
organization.” 

A District president says: “The Epworth League 
is the R. O. T. C. of the church. It is also the only 
place where the young can freely express themselves 
and govern themselves.” 

It is its democratic spirit which gives it unique 
value in cultivating the power of self-direction in 
young people. 

3. A third need of youth is for an inspiring vieio 


FOK YOUNG PEOPLE 


19 


of life and its meaning which will furnish sufficient 
incentive for sacrificial endeavor . “What is life 
for?” is a most momentous question. Sometimes 
very pitiful answers are given. A group of high- 
school girls were discussing their opinions. One 
said, “I am living for one great, grand, glorious 
good time.” Hermann Hagedorn has well said that 
until youth is awakened to life’s deeper meanings, 
it can be “unbelievably cheap.” 

Sometimes our elders grow cynical and pessimistic 
about youth, and seeing only the dancing, cigarette¬ 
smoking, movie-mad, joy-riding crowd, jump to the 
conclusion that there is nothing else about the youth 
of to-day but “unbelievable cheapness.” The fact is 
that all they need is an inspiring view of life to 
make them as heroic and unselfish and noble as the 
youth of any generation have ever been. 

It is this need which the Epworth League is so 
successfully meeting in its evangelistic emphasis. 
It brings the good news of an inspiring view of life 
and its meaning in a personal acquaintance with 
Jesus Christ. To bring them to know him, is to 
save them from themselves, to lift them above the 
level of the sordid and the cheap, and prepare them 
for life’s highest and best. 

4. A fourth need of youth is to so Christianize his 
comradeships, that they may not poison and degrade, 
but may stimulate and inspire him to his best. That 
young people will seek one another’s society is a 
foregone conclusion. Friendship among youth is 
the normal and expected thing. If it is not made 
possible under wholesome conditions, it will de- 


20 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


velop under unwholesome conditions. It is normal 
that leisure hours shall be spent in some kind of 
comradeship and recreation. Shall they be so spent 
as to really re-create, or will they be recreation with 
the “wreck” the most prominent result? 

The Epworth League responds to this need with 
a program that is social and recreational. It has 
done splendid pioneer work in this field. It is a far 
cry from the day when in John Wesley’s school at 
Kingswood every form of play was prohibited, to 
the deliverance of the General Conference in 1920 
on the question of recreations. That body gave 
utterance to these significant words: “While we are 
aware that improper amusements are a ‘fruitful 
source of spiritual decline,’ we also believe that the 
social and recreational instinct is God-given and, if 
properly guided, will strengthen rather than injure 
the spiritual life. The church must no longer 
allow her youth to ‘go into the near-by villages and 
buy themselves the victuals of social life,’ but, 
rather, should say, ‘Sit down and eat’ of the clean, 
wholesome things provided by the church, which 
seeks to build a social and recreational life that is 
spiritual, and a spiritual life that is social and 
recreational.” 1 

Such a change in attitude is not the result of 
legislation. The legislation is, rather, the public 
registering of a change that has already been 
wrought out in actual practice. Toward this change 
the League has made a notable contribution. From 

1 Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, <169. The Methodist Book Concern, 1920. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


21 


meager and blundering beginnings, it lias developed 
a program of friendship and recreation that avoids, 
on the one hand, the charge of insipidity and dull¬ 
ness, and, on the other hand, is free from the taint 
of poison that destroys spiritual life. This is no 
longer a theory. It works—as witness the recrea¬ 
tional life of the Institutes, and the similar life 
carried home to hundreds of local chapters. 

5. A fifth need of youth is for the consistent and 
adequate nourishment of a developing Christian 
character. What he requires is regular and whole¬ 
some food for a growing life. The heavy burdens 
of this world are never going to be carried by 
famished and emaciated personalities. Great enter¬ 
prises of the Kingdom will never be undertaken by 
men and women of undernourished spiritual life. 
The story of the church’s heroes and saints is the 
story of leaders who, whatever their physical life 
may have been, were robust and vigorous of soul. 
To create in youth a healthy appetite for such food, 
and then supply it consistently is a paramount 
need. 

The Epworth League has responded with a pro¬ 
gram that is vitally spiritual. There are few more 
inspiring sights in Methodism than the thousands 
of groups meeting on Sunday evenings for services 
of devotion, under their own leadership, for prayer, 
song, testimony, and instruction. The nearly seven 
thousand new enrollments for Morning Watch, in 
1923, the hundreds of Bible Study groups, the thou¬ 
sands of Junior Chapters in membership training, 
all bear testimony to the growing of a generation 


22 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


of robust Christian characters, nourished by prayer 
and Bible study and Christian fellowship, and made 
ready for days of lavish self-expenditure in Chris¬ 
tian service. 

Ponder these opinions advanced by Epworth 
Leaguers themselves: 

“It will be a perilous day for the church if it ever 
contemplates to disband this organization. In a de¬ 
votional way it reaches a large group that would 
not otherwise be reached.” 

“It is the foundation for Christian character¬ 
building and molding of young lives for Christ.” 

“The Epworth League affords a training in the de¬ 
votional life of young people available in no other 
way.” 

“It is a modern extension and adaptation of the 
old class meeting idea for our young people.” 

“It bridges the chasm through which and over 
which the boys and girls of later adolescence go into 
the actual workings of church life. I firmly believe 
no other organization in the church so cares for and 
develops the religious worth and physical fiber of 
youth.” 

Such expressions could be multiplied by the hun¬ 
dreds. As personal testimonies, they indicate that 
this work of nourishing the spiritual life of youth 
is actually being done successfully by the Epworth 
League. 

6. A sixth need of youth is an outlet for his grow¬ 
ing life in vigorous action, which will not only he 
the means of his own development, hut he an ade¬ 
quate expression of his passion for service. It has 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


23 


long been a threadbare saying, yet one that is pro¬ 
foundly true nevertheless, that “we learn by doing.” 
“No impression without expression” is another. 
The teacher who calls upon a pupil to recite, is not 
thereby expecting to acquire information that the 
world never had before. He is seeking to clinch 
the lesson in the mind of the pupil who finds in 
after years that the lessons he recited upon have 
remained when others have been obliterated from 
his memory. The laboratory in modern education 
is a necessary supplement to the textbook. The 
playground where principles are put into practice 
has a higher place in developing character than has 
yet been generally recognized. It is a matter of no 
little import to “suit the action to the word, and 
the word to the action.” The Master anticipated 
this principle when again and again he insisted 
upon the deed as an expression of the thought, 
“This do and thou shalt live.” “He that heareth 
these sayings of mine and doeth them” is the man 
whose life will endure the storm. 

It is not without significance that youth is a 
period of dynamic energy, when action is his ir¬ 
repressible demand. “Give me something to do” 
is his oft-repeated challenge. Perhaps this is the 
reason why youth is the great period of develop¬ 
ment and expansion; it is a period of such vigorous 
activity. If his moral and religious life are to have 
their share in this development, suitable channels 
of activity must be provided. 

In response to this demand, the program of the 
Epworth League is largely expressional. In a great 


24 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


variety of ways, it affords youth a channel for the 
expression of his inner life. It gives him some¬ 
thing worth while to do, in the midst of his own 
crowd, where he is not intimidated by the presence 
of those more mature than himself. 

A New York Epworthian puts it thus: 

“The energy of youth must be ‘vented’ in some 
manner. If it is not ‘vented’ to good advantage, 
then it must be ‘vented’ in a harmful and detri¬ 
mental way. The Epworth League gives the youth 
a chance and a place to vent his or her energy in 
the very most advantageous and beneficial way pos¬ 
sible both for himself or herself and for our God, 
who rules and owns us all.” 

Another gives this testimony: 

“Personally I cannot speak highly enough of the 
Epworth League and its program. It is a splendid 
training school for young people. It has taught me 
to do many things I never thought I could do.” 

Still another: 

“It is the best instrument of the church in which 
young men and women are taught to express them¬ 
selves in regard to their religious experience and 
all problems for the good of the community.” 

A young man from Nebraska writes: “There is 
nothing in the Methodist Episcopal Church that 
takes the place of the Epworth League. Next to 
the Sunday school, it is the most important part of 
the church to young people. The Sunday school 
gives religious instruction. The Epworth League 
gives young people a chance to use it. The Epworth 
League is thereby furnishing the church leaders. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


25 


Almost all of our Sunday-school teachers are or 
have been Epworthians. The faithful official board 
members are or have been Epworthians. It seems 
as if the Sunday-school scholars, unless interested 
in the Epworth League, drop out of active church 
work. The Epworth League is the one place in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church that trains for leader¬ 
ship/’ 

The value of the expressional side of the League’s 
program can scarcely be overestimated. And its 
value is not merely in its reflex influence upon the 
Leaguers themselves. As will be shown later, this 
dynamic energy of youth, when once harnessed to 
the world’s tasks, becomes one of the most powerful 
of the agencies for world service. 

7. A final need of youth is that of self-discovery. 
What is to be my life work? What was I meant 
for? Where can I best invest my life? These are 
the burning questions for every youth, and the right 
kind of counsel m not always at hand. Multitudes 
of youth are left to stumble their own way blindly, 
or to be thrust into some life-work by trifling acci¬ 
dent of circumstance rather than by wise considera¬ 
tion of the question on its merits. 

Yet there are few questions in which the whole 
world has greater stake than the answer which 
each generation of youth will give to the question 
of life-work. Every profession and calling in life 
is in need of men whose native endowments 
best fit them for that field. To make a wrong choice 
must mean inferior workmanship and the loss of 
much needed effectiveness. To let the life drift with 


26 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


no particular choice at all is to leave some enter¬ 
prise bereft of a leadership that it might have had, 
and to leave that life a derelict, a menace to others 
as well as to himself. 

Especially is it important that the program of 
Christianity have its chance at the ablest and bright¬ 
est of youth. Evans Worthley of the Commission on 
Life Service has well said: “The whole world is turn¬ 
ing with new hope to religion to-day as a way lead¬ 
ing out of chaos and confusion. Can the way be 
made plain? Wisdom, courage, imagination, con¬ 
structive ability are needed. The ablest leadership 
is required to bridge the chasm between the church 
and the factory, between Religion and Science, be¬ 
tween the Old and the New. . . . The brain 

and the heart of the world must be brought to¬ 
gether in the process. A greater and better world 
must be brought into existence. . . . The choicest, 
ablest young men and women are being challenged 
to devote their lives to the promotion of Chris¬ 
tianity.” 

The great question is, How can this challenge best 
be presented to worth-while youth of to-day? 

Many answers are being given, one of the most 
effective being that of the Epworth League, with a 
program that is vocational. Not that the Epworth 
League would attempt to give expert vocational 
guidance in relation to every profession or calling 
in life, nor, on the other hand, does it unduly seek 
to press every individual into so-called Christian 
life service. It rather seeks by its whole program 
and atmosphere to inspire youth to think of life in 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


its highest terms, to distinguish the things that 
are most worth while, to consider his whole life 
a plan of God in the directing of which God’s coun¬ 
sel must be sought; and to be dominated by the 
Christian spirit of service, whatever life calling 
may ultimately be chosen. 

Furthermore, through its Bible Study, its Mis¬ 
sion Classes, its Institutes, and its world program, 
it presents the basic facts about the great King¬ 
dom movement upon which an intelligent choice of 
life investment may be reached. It is little wonder 
that with such a program, the Epworth League 
should have poured into the church in the last five 
years more life-service recruits than all other 
agencies combined. But that is only part of the 
story. Its contribution to lay leadership is no less 
significant. 

Out of scores of estimates of the League program 
gathered from Leaguers from all parts of the coun¬ 
try, this phase of the work was more often stressed 
than any other. Here are a few of them, each ring¬ 
ing with the conviction of personal experience: 

“The Epworth League is the training school for 
the church. Its Institutes are recruiting stations 
for Kingdom service. It is the only distinctly 
young people’s organization of the church.” 

“In our community we feel that the Epworth 
League adds strength and young life to our church. 
The success of the future of the church will de¬ 
pend very largely upon the training of the young 
people.” 

“The Epworth League is the greatest organiza- 


28 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


tion ii* the church for training young people and 
bringing them into definite Christian service. I 
don’t believe our church could put on such a pro¬ 
gram as it does without the influence of consecrated 
Epworthians.” 

“It is invaluable in its training of leaders. 
Through the efforts of the League many young peo¬ 
ple are led to give all or part of their time to the 
Master’s work. I believe that the effectiveness of 
the work of the future church depends on the work 
of the League.” 

“In my mind, the greatest task of the Epworth 
League is to take young people in the formative 
stage of life and help them find in life the place in 
which they belong.” 

Thus the Epworth League is seeking to meet this 
universal demand of youth, the demand for self- 
discovery. 

In the more than a third of a century of its his¬ 
tory this sevenfold program of the Epworth League 
has been gradually evolved to meet this sevenfold 
need of youth. That it is actually succeeding in 
meeting that need when rightly understood and 
intelligently promoted is attested by a multitude of 
consecrated young people now in the League 
throughout the country, and by older leaders in 
places of Kingdom responsibility the world over. 

There is one conclusion to the whole matter. The 
program of the League is demonstrated to be prac¬ 
tical. It works. What it has been able to do for 
some it presumably can do for all. It has just 
begun to touch the fringes of the task. It has 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


29 


reached but a tithe of its effectiveness. Many youth 
within the church have never yet been enriched by 
it. A multitude of youth outside the church but 
still within our constituency are untouched by it. 
If the three quarters of a million young people in 
the Junior and Senior Epworth League have re¬ 
ceived help from it which will make their lives 
more useful to the Kingdom as well as more satis¬ 
fying to themselves, then they owe a debt. The 
four or five million youth in our constituency 
should have opportunity to share in the same 
benefit. Here is a crusade sufficient to stir the most 
sluggish heart. Here is an adventure to the like of 
which the heart of youth has always responded. 

Consider a moment the urgency of this crusade. 

It is urgent because the period of youth does not 
last forever. To the lad entering his teens, it seems 
an interminable stretch to the twenties. But it 
is a space covered with incredible speed. And in 
that fleeting period must be crowded all the pro¬ 
gram for the enlistment and training of youth for 
Christ. The precious age of plasticity is all too 
soon gone by, and when it is gone and the nature is 
set in its permanent mold, then some things are for¬ 
ever too late. 

I visited a factory once where plows were being 
manufactured. I saw the raw iron ore, and then 
watched it step by step until at last it came out as 
a plow beam. I found myself fascinated by that 
step in the process when a big molten bar, heated 
to a certain temperature, was seized in giant tongs 
by two husky men and thrown into place on a 


30 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


machine that bent it into the shape of a beam. The 
guide explained that the handling of this red hot 
metal required particular skill. The temperature 
and all other conditions must be exactly right. The 
foreman of that department had once had to use un¬ 
skilled men for a time, and the result was that sev¬ 
eral car loads of plows were returned as utterly 
unfit for use. 

The period of youth is the period when the nature 
is at white heat. It can be molded, with skillful 
handling, into such forms as when set and fixed will 
be highly useful to the world. With wrong hand¬ 
ling, it may be left worse than useless. And that 
period of white" heat is quickly passed. Not much 
time remains for molding the lives of this present 
generation of youth. What we do must be done 
quickly. 

This crusade is urgent too, because of the keen 
competition. Many forces are contending for the 
mastery. If Christianity were left an open field, 
and could enter unhindered at her leisure, the delay 
of a month or a year in her ministry to youth 
might not be fatal. But, alas! the field is not open. 
Sinister forces are at work, and they will not wait. 

Youth is not only the period of great decision for 
heroic service and sublime sacrifice. It is, alas! 
also the period of decision for sin and crime. The 
vast majority of criminals begin their lives of crime 
in youth. When a man’s career ends in failure and 
humiliation in middle life, we are likely to charge 
middle life with the responsibility. But that was 
only the public and open result of the fact that 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


31 


the fork in the road lay in youth and the wrong 
choice was made. As the Christian Century puts 
it: “The opening of an important letter is a criti¬ 
cal moment, but the issue was really decided when 
the letter was written. Developing a photographic 
negative is a critical matter, for the operator does 
not know how it will turn out, but the matter was 
decided when the exposure was made. It used to 
be a pleasant custom to kill the messenger who 
brought bad news and reward the bearer of good 
tidings. The illustrations are imperfect, . . . 

but they suggest the truth, which is that the nor¬ 
mal time of crisis in the individual life is adolescence 
and that when something goes wrong later, it 
usually traces back to something that was wrong 
then” (Christian Century, Vol. XL, No. 30, p. 932). 
In the light of the fact that youth is a period when 
things may go not only nobly and splendidly right, 
but may also go tragically and fatally wrong, under 
pressure of fiercely competing forces of evil, how 
urgent is our Christian Crusade! 

“Sin worketh—let me work too. 

Sin undoeth, let me do. 

Busy as sin my work I ply 
Till I rest in the rest of eternity. 

“Time worketh—let me work too. 

Time undoeth, let me do. 

Busy as time my work I ply, 

Till I rest in the rest of eternity.” 

This crusade is urgent furthermore because of 
the plight of the teorld. Disillusioned, groping, dis- 


32 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


trustful, anxious, impoverished materially and 
morally and spiritually, the world is in need of a 
fresh leadership as never before. At no period 
could she so ill afford to have precious young life 
poured out upon the ground and squandered in 
“unbelievable cheapness.” The Master must be 
brooding over the youth of to-day with wistful 
heart, longing for the right channels by which his 
message might reach their ears, and they might be 
constrained to rise up and follow him. 

Who knoweth whether the Epworth League, 
wrought out through the leadership of the Spirit, 
on the anvil of experience, in response to these needs 
of youth, may not be the very tool selected of God 
and brought to the kingdom for such a time as this? 

Once that conviction is burned into our souls, a 
search for successful method becomes imperative. 

CHAPTER I 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 

Introduction: The Epworth League—Methodism’s 
greatest adventure. 

a. Whole church program an adventure. 

b. The heart of the adventure is winning of youth. 

c. Epworth League is most effective instrument 

for this purpose. 

I. The Needs of Youth and the League’s Reply. 

1. a. Youth’s need for wise guidance in adven¬ 
ture toward maturity, 
b. League’s reply—Educational Program. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


33 


2. a. Need for self-direction. 

b. Reply—Democratic Program. 

3. a. Need for inspiring view of life, 
b. Reply—Evangelistic Program. 

4. a. Need for food for growing character, 
b. Reply—Spiritual Program. 

5. a. Need for Christianizing his Comradeships, 
b. Reply—Social and Recreational Program. 

6. a. Need for outlet in vigorous action, 
b. Reply—Expressional Program. 

7. a. Need for self-discovery. 

b. Reply—Vocational Program. 

Therefore the Epworth League is a challenging 
crusade to carry this program to the young 
people who need it. 

II. L T rgency of this Crusade. 

1. Urgent because period of youth so quickly 

passes. 

2. Urgent because of the many forces competing 

with Christianity. 

3. Urgent because of the plight of the world. 

Conclusion: Epworth League has been brought into 
kingdom for such a time as this. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. Which type of appeal will gain greater re¬ 
sponse from youth—the appeal to accept religion 
for the good he can get, or to accept it as a daring 
crusade for the right? 


34 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


2. Which type of appeal did Jesus use? Cite 
instances. 

3. Since the Epworth League program supplies 
what young people need, for their own good, how 
can it at the same time be presented as a crusade? 

4. How may this “crusade” point of view affect: 

a. Publicity plans? 

b. Talking points in gaining new members? 

c. Efforts to enlist each member in depart¬ 

mental work? 

d. Making officers feel their responsibility? 

e. Planning program of activities for the 

year? 

f. Tying up League members with the 

church ? 

5. Can you think of other needs of young people 
not mentioned in the text? If so, is there anything 
in the League program to meet them ? 

6. If other needs should develop in the future, is 
there enough flexibility and initiative within the 
League itself to adapt its program to the new need ? 
How can we develop these qualities? 

7. Outline the various activities of the chapter 
under the different heads: “Educational,” “Expres- 
sional,” etc. Are there activities that cannot be put 
under any of these? 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


35 


CHAPTER II 

THE PLACE OF THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 
IN THE CHURCH 

“Oh you blind leaders who seek to convert the 
world by labored disputations! Give us the Young! 
Give us the Young and we will create a new mind 
and a new earth in a single generation!” 

This stirring and prophetic word of Benjamin 
Kidd, so frequently quoted, falls to-day upon far 
more responsive ears than was true a generation 
ago. Even yet, we have just barely begun to catch 
their full significance. A greater part of the world 
is still deaf to their appeal. Even the church has 
made only a fair start at building its program with 
this great truth in mind. 

But the distance we have come appears more evi¬ 
dent when we glance backward to the state of affairs 
when the Christian Endeavor and the Epworth 
League were coming into being. This epochal out¬ 
burst of young life was the inevitable reaction from 
an age when repression was the watchword, and 
youth was to be seen and not heard. For a long 
and dreary period the waters of exuberant young 
life had been piling up behind the dam of adult 
domination. Everything was built around adult 
life—the houses of worship, the church program 
(where they had a program at all), the summer 


36 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


camp meetings, the hymns, the type of religious ex¬ 
perience demanded, the revival campaigns—every¬ 
thing connected with the church was fashioned for 
older folks. Youth was looked upon not as the 
time of golden opportunity but as a period of nec¬ 
essary evil, to be gotten through with as little an¬ 
noyance and inconvenience as possible. Of what 
consequence was youth in itself? What achieve¬ 
ments had he to his credit? Only when he came 
to maturity did he prove himself able to erect build¬ 
ings, make discoveries, perfect inventions, write 
books, establish institutions, carry the gospel to 
the ends of the earth. The chief concern seemed to 
be to get young people safely through the gauntlet 
of youthful temptations and the iniquitous tenden¬ 
cies that belonged to unregenerate nature, and 
bring them quickly to adulthood with as few 
wounds and scars as possible. Hence stern repres¬ 
sion and watchful guarding were the order of the 
day. 

It is small wonder that such an age was a barren 
and discouraging one for the church. Christianity 
seemed to be on the decline. The church was los¬ 
ing ground. It was on the defensive. It had no 
program. Church leaders were anxious. The state 
of mind was reflected in books like The Tragedy of 
the Collapse of Faith, and The Gospel for an Age of 
Douht. 

Then the dam burst. The pent-up waters poured 
forth. In church after church young people’s so¬ 
cieties sprang up and met with immediate enthu¬ 
siasm. The enrollment, in an incredibly short time, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


37 


of more than four million in the Christian En¬ 
deavor, organized in 1881, indicates something of 
the force of the flood let loose. 

Five different channels were gradually shaped to 
receive and guide this sweeping flood in the Meth¬ 
odist Episcopal Church. Every Leaguer is familiar 
with the names of those five original societies, The 
Young People’s Methodist Alliance, the Oxford 
League, The Young People’s Christian League, The 
Methodist Young People’s Union, and the Young 
People’s Methodist Episcopal Alliance. 

And it is a familiar story, too, of how, on those 
significant days, May 13, 14 and 15, 1889, in the 
old Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Cleveland, 
Ohio (now the Epworth-Euclid Church) prophetic 
and far-visioned leaders dug out the separating 
banks and permitted those five streams to converge 
into one mighty river, The Epworth League, whose 
waters have ever since been wonderfully irrigating 
the life of the church, and transforming the desert 
into a garden. 

Time would fail us to follow the course of that 
stream in detail through this third of a century or 
to describe its steady expansion, as it has gathered 
new tributaries of youth to itself, or how incredibly 
this stream of young life has enriched and refreshed 
the church again and again. May we, rather, in 
this chapter, consider some of the luscious fruits 
now being borne by the church for the sake of the 
world’s life, and then inquire how largely this fruit 
is dependent upon irrigation from the Epworth 
League, the stream of the church’s youth. 


38 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Did you ever sink your teetli into a delicious, juicy 
Hood River apple ? If you haven’t had the privilege, 
you have missed something. But when you do, 
please bear this fact in mind, that that luscious 
apple was made possible by irrigation. The writer 
had the memorable experience recently of visiting 
that marvelous Hood River Valley, Oregon, in apple 
blossom time. In every direction were the moun¬ 
tains—to the north the glistening peak of Mount 
Adams, to the east and west the heavily wooded 
cross ranges, while to the south, the majestic peak 
of old Mount Hood, crowned with its eternal snows. 
And down through the valley were the orchards, 
miles and miles of them, decked out in their gorgeous 
spring attire, and appearing in the far distance like 
patches of white frost on the meadow. But along 
by the side of every orchard was the inevitable irri¬ 
gation conduit, dripping with cold mountain water, 
ready to be turned into the furrows to give life to 
the thirsting trees. The mountains completely sur¬ 
rounding that valley had forbidden the approach of 
the rain clouds, and the valley had lain there for 
millenniums a barren desert. At last man dis¬ 
covered that right within his reach were resources 
abundantly sufficient to make that desert blossom 
as a rose. The snows had been there intermittently 
piling up and partially melting ever since the lava 
cooled in the long ago. And the waters had been 
there too, but wasting themselves in the old 
channels that conducted them away from the 
parched valley and out to the Columbia River and 
the sea. They waited the time when suitable chan- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


39 


nels would be provided, and they would be given 
the chance to transform that desert and produce the 
fruit that has made that valley famous. 

Our youth we have always had with us since the 
world was young. They have had the same poten¬ 
tial value all the while. But we have too often 
allowed the stream to flow by us in channels that 
t led away from largest usefulness, rather than to¬ 
ward it, and only by merest chance has the stream 
partially irrigated its banks. And then we have 
wondered why there have been so many barren 
stretches in history and in the church, and why the 
church’s fruitfulness in the world has often been so 
meager. 

But we have come into a new day in our valua¬ 
tion of youth. The thirty-five years of the Epworth 
League’s experience as a young people’s society have 
seen the development of successful channels for turn¬ 
ing the stream of youth into the church. And the 
world has witnessed the greatest increase of pro¬ 
ductivity and fruitfulness through the Centenary 
and World Service that has been recorded in all our 
Methodist History, if not in that of Protestantism 
itself. 

The Epworth League, of course, would not be so 
presumptuous as to claim all the credit for the 
bringing in of this new epoch. Indeed, there is 
glory enough, and there is challenge enough, for 

all. 

But may we look at some of the ways in which 
the League has irrigated the church’s life, in order 
that, seeing what it has done when only partially 


40 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


utilized, we may get a vision of what might be the 
fruits if it could direct the whole stream of Meth¬ 
odist youth? 

I. First of ally the Epworth League is amazingly 
enriching the leadership of the church. It seems 
to be the inevitable tendency of life to grow static, 
to settle into fixed molds, to fall into ruts. Billy 
Sunday has defined a rut as a “grave with both ends 
knocked out.” There is grim truth in the figure. 
Institutions as well as individuals get into ruts. 
Leaders grow old, and lose their vision and daring, 
and when no new leaders are raised up to take their 
places institutions go down to their graves as a re¬ 
sult. The perpetual problem of every institution, 
if it is to live, is the new infusion of fresh blood, 
the enlisting of a new leadership. 

In a certain town of the Middle West, there stood 
a bank which for many years had been the financial 
backbone of that community. But as its leaders 
grew old and lost their initiative and daring, that 
bank began to lose ground. The volume of its busi¬ 
ness diminished until it became a grave question 
whether it could survive. One summer there came 
into that town three vigorous, live young men. One 
became president of that bank. Another became 
cashier, and the third a member of the board of 
directors. They plunged into their work with dar¬ 
ing and enthusiasm. Immediately the tide turned. 
The first year showed a doubling of the business, 
and now there stands on that corner a new struc¬ 
ture, housing one of the strongest financial insti¬ 
tutions in that part of the State. Just one explana- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


41 


tion—the infusion of fresh blood, the coming of new 
leadership. 

/*The whole world is in need of youth. It must 
'have them. Without them life would become 
stagnant and perish from the earth. Again and 
again the youth have been the world’s salvation. 

The average age of the Pilgrim Fathers was only 
thirty-three. The members of the Constitutional 
Convention were mostly young men. Hamilton was 
30; Madison, 36; Dayton, 27. It was the youth of 
the country who fought the Civil War, the average 
age being under twenty. The world’s progress is 
utterly dependent upon youth if it would be 
rescued from repeated stagnation. 

The church is subject to the same peril. It falls 
into ruts. Its leadership grows old. Only by means 
of recruiting fresh leadership has she been kept 
from stagnation, and made a power for creating a 
better world. 

Think how often the church has been saved by 
the outbursting of young life. Jesus himself did 
his w r ork as a young man, and that dynamic move¬ 
ment of the first century was largely a young peo¬ 
ple’s movement. 

Martin Luther was under thirty when he nailed 
his theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg 
and launched the Reformation. John Wesley was 
only twenty-four when his heart was “strangely 
warmed” in that little room in Aldersgate Street, 
and Methodism was born. Francis Asbury was 
only twenty-six when he came to America to take 
charge of the American Methodist Church. It was 



42 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


a group of young men who held the famous “hay¬ 
stack prayer meeting” that resulted in the modern 
missionary movement. 

If it were not for youth again and again coming 
to the rescue, the church would have perished long 
ago. 

The contribution of the Epworth League at this 
point has been significant. For thirty-five years, 
the Epworth League has been giving to an ever-in¬ 
creasing procession of young people their first train¬ 
ing in leadership. Thousands of young people have 
year by year been gathered in, and their interest 
stirred in affairs of the Kingdom. There they have 
received their first experience at committee work, 
their first experience in holding an office, their first 
experience in responsible leadership. They were 
being given their first impulse toward the use of 
their lives for the promotion of the Kingdom. And 
for these thirty-five years the League has been pour¬ 
ing an unceasing stream of such trained and en¬ 
thusiastic leaders into every channel of church ac¬ 
tivity. From such beginnings, they have gone out 
to be our Sunday-school teachers and superintend¬ 
ents, to fill positions on our official boards, to be 
pastors of our churches, and secretaries of our 
boards, and to be our missionaries and our bishops. 

The figures compiled from the office of the Life 
Service Commission indicate clearly how the League 
is at this present moment recruiting the church’s 
leadership: 

December 17, 1923. 

The Life Service recruits in the active file of the 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


43 


Life Service Commission have been enlisted as fol¬ 
lows : 


From the Centenary prior to .1920. 913 

From individuals (Pastors, District Superin¬ 
tendents, etc.). 1,793 

From educational institutions. 1,333 

From non-Methodist sources (Student Volun¬ 
teers, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., etc.). 574 

From undesignated sources. 1,156 

From Methodist organizations. 6,989 


of which number the Epworth League furnished 
6,331. 

These figures are impressive. The League is re¬ 
cruiting more volunteers than all other agencies in 
the church combined, and at the same time is fur¬ 
nishing larger numbers of trained lay leadership. 

A district president, from New York, writes: “To 
my mind, the Epworth League is the training school 
of the church. The other societies of the church 
should aid the League instead of hindering it, oppos¬ 
ing it, or merely ignoring it. Under the encourage¬ 
ment and aid of the larger societies, more trained 
workers for their field could be secured. The vari¬ 
ous departments of the League tend to encourage 
the line of work for which a young person is most 
fitted and inclined, and more ministers could be en¬ 
listed from the First Department, more mission¬ 
aries from the Second, more deaconesses and church 
workers from the Third, more recreational directors, 
etc., from the Fourth Department, if more coopera¬ 
tion could be secured from the other organizations.” 







44 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


A prominent Sunday-school authority states that 
more candidates are secured for teacher-training 
classes from Epworth League Institutes than from 
all other organizations. 

The program of the League, as has often been 
claimed, is the whole program of the whole church 
for the whole world. Nowhere is this more clearly 
seen than in its leadership enlistments. It under¬ 
girds the whole church at this point. It is making 
real contribution to every branch of the church’s 
activity. To return to our original figure, it fur¬ 
nishes the life-giving water, in its great irrigation 
system, which manifests itself at last in all manner 
of fruit. 

II. In the second place, the Epicorth League 
largely enriches the church’s fruitfulness in Chris¬ 
tian Missions . A prominent editor was speaking 
recently in behalf of education. He described 
vividly the world situation as he saw it—the white 
race sick, staggering, bankrupt economically, 
morally, spiritually. He described the great colored 
races, awakening from sleep, taking on new vigor, 
disputing more and more the white domination of 
the world. He described luridly the coming inevi¬ 
table conflict, when the battle must be fought out 
for supremacy. And then he made a plea for higher 
education, whereby the brains of the white race 
may be sharpened, as the only weapon sufficient to 
win the victory in the coming struggle. 

He may have been true as to facts. His conclu¬ 
sion was wrong and unchristian. Is there no other 
way out than a war for supremacy? We must be- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


45 


lieve there is, if we are to retain our faith in Christ, 
for he alone points the way out. Only the ruler- 
ship of Christ over the races, bringing justice and 
fair play, and the spirit of brotherhood, can bring 
about the sort of peace that we want. It is not the 
peace that comes from the triumph and domination 
of one race over another. It is rather the peace of 
harmonious adjustment, due to right relations. 

I once visited a factory and was shown a gigantic 
flywheel that weighed many tons; yet it was ad¬ 
justed so delicately on its axis that it ran without 
a sound. A few days later it got a fraction of an 
inch out of line—and completely demolished the 
building in which it was located. After the debris 
had settled, there was doubtless a certain kind of 
peace, but it was the peace of wreckage and ruin. 
Only such a peace can come from war, however vic¬ 
torious one side may be. 

What is wanted is not a peace that comes from 
the domination of any race. It is, rather, the peace 
of harmonious adjustment, of fair play and good 
will. And the enterprise that has more to do with 
the future peace and security of the world than any 
other is that of Christian missions. It is this enter¬ 
prise that is the essence of the statesmanship of the 
future. And that includes the mission at home as 
well as abroad. The greatest issue now before us 
is whether we will acknowledge the supremacy of 
Christ and give him his way, both among the white 
and the colored races. This gives the missionary 
enterprise a new urgency to every man who thinks. 

The Epworth League is proud to enrich in a very 


46 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


tangible way the church’s work at this point. It is 
doing so in several ways. 

1. The League is enriching Christian missions by 
carrying on an extensive program of missionary 
education. In 1922-23, there were reported to the 
Central Office 5,723 mission study classes in the 
Epworth League, representing tens of thousands of 
young people actually studying missions. There 
were probably many others not reported. The 35,- 
000 Leaguers in the 128 Institutes in the summer of 
1923 were practically all studying missions. En¬ 
thusiasm for mission study is reported also from 
India, Malaysia, China, Philippine Islands, Tunis, 
and Europe. These facts are full of meaning. The 
church of to-morrow is certain to be a great mission¬ 
ary church. 

2. Again the League undergirds the missionary 
enterprise through its stewardship education and 
enrollments. The young people are not content 
merely to study missions. Their impulse is to do. 
More than 50,000 were enrolled in the last quad- 
rennium as Christian stewards. What that may 
mean in the future even from a financial standpoint 
cannot be predicted, for the enrollments of tithing 
stewards among young people are the most sig¬ 
nificant and full of possibility of any taken any¬ 
where. 

3. We have already called attention to the life- 
service contribution. The heart of the missionary 
enterprise is not money but men. Hundreds every 
year are inspired through the League program to 
give their lives to this task. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


47 


4. The League strengthens the missionary enter¬ 
prise finally by carrying its program of “young peo¬ 
ple’s work for young people” right onto the mission 
field. The League’s effectiveness in training leader¬ 
ship for the home church is being duplicated in 
India, in China, in Mexico, and other mission fields 
in training native young people for a self-support¬ 
ing native church. Through its twenty-four-hour- 
day program, its own secretaries are developing 
young people’s work where it is bringing one hun¬ 
dredfold missionary returns. 

III. The Epteorth League is enriching the 
church’s program of religious education. 

1. It is doing so first, as already indicated, by 
contributing teachers and workers for that great 
department of the church whose prime purpose is 
religious education, namely, the Sunday school. 
One district president writes that by means of a 
questionnaire in his district he found that ninety 
per cent of all teachers and workers who could be 
depended upon had been trained in the League. 

2. Furthermore, the Epworth League has de¬ 
veloped its own comprehensive courses of study, not 
duplicating, but splendidly supplementing other 
courses offered. 

To say that they need supplementing is to cast no 
reflection upon the work now being done by the other 
educational agencies of the church. They have 
never done more efficient work than they are doing 
to-day. Yet they are the first to recognize that this 
is insufficient. The number of hours of religious in¬ 
struction received by the average Protestant youth 


48 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


is pitifully small in contrast to that received by 
Jewish and Catholic children. 

The Interchurch Survey recently published con¬ 
cerning the Sunday-school situation in Indiana re¬ 
veals the fact that in that State the average number 
of hours of actual instruction received in the Sun¬ 
day school in a year by the average pupil is a little 
over fifteen hours. 

The significance of the League’s contribution ap¬ 
pears when it is remembered that 35,000 young peo¬ 
ple in the Institutes last summer took five periods 
a day of forty minutes each, for five days, or a 
total of more hours of actual instruction, and prob¬ 
ably under more competent teachers, than that re¬ 
ceived by the average Sunday-school pupil in 
Indiana in a whole year. 

The studies covered in the Institute program 
touch a wide range of themes related to practical 
Christianity and the program of the church, and are 
contributing much toward an informed and intelli¬ 
gent church membership. 

In the local chapter, still more significant educa¬ 
tional work is being done. Junior chapters present 
a splendid training course for church membership. 
Senior chapters have organized thousands of study 
classes in Bible, missions, citizenship, stewardship, 
and kindred subjects. 

It is impossible to think that the church of to¬ 
morrow will not be more adequately equipped to 
meet the demands made upon it because of this 
training. 

In this connection, it may be recalled that much 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


49 


is being done to encourage good reading. The sales 
of books to young people from The Methodist Book 
Concern last year amounted to $40,000. The com¬ 
bined subscription lists of its three publications 
(Epworth Herald, Epworth League Quarterly, and 
Junior Workers’ Quarterly) have reached 115,000. 

3. But perhaps one of the most important con¬ 
tributions to Christian education is to be found not 
so much in what is actually learned in the Epworth 
League as in what young people are inspired to 
learn elsewhere. It is not pretended that a five- or 
six-lesson course in Bible Study or citizenship or 
missions is exhaustive in itself, or has covered the 
field. It has accomplished its purpose, however, if 
it has opened the subject and created a genuine 
interest that will be followed up later on. 

It is a significant tribute, therefore, when one of 
our national training schools gives the information 
that three fourths of all their students have enrolled 
through the influence of the Epworth League Insti¬ 
tutes. It is still further illuminating to hear a 
Methodist college president say that -ninety per cent 
of his students have entered college because of the 
influence of the Epworth League. 

Such an educational program dealing with an age 
group that is impressionable and idealistic and on 
the threshold of leadership in the church has an 
importance out of all proportion to the statistics in¬ 
volved. The hundredfold fruitage in the church of 
to-morrow will have to be gathered before the final 
results can be known. 

IV. Finally, the Epworth League is enriching the 


50 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


church’s program of evangelism. The heart of the 
church’s task is here. She may have many other 
types of ministry, and all of them important, but 
none of them can be a substitute for this. It is 
always her glorious privilege to proclaim the good 
news of God, and to lead men into a saving fellow¬ 
ship with Christ. 

Yet, strange to say, at no point is she in greater 
need of reenforcement to-day than here. Some of 
her leaders, grown intellectual, have lost the old- 
time fire that once set men’s hearts ablaze. Others, 
while attempting at least to simulate the old pas¬ 
sion, have lagged behind the intellectual procession 
and fail to command respect. Some have closed 
their eyes to the fact that times have changed, and 
persist in clinging to outworn methods that are ill 
adapted to our day. Others, enamoured of the 
church’s modern program, have been absorbed with 
the machinery and the method, but have failed to 
see that evangelism must be the heart of the new 
program as of the old. 

In the midst of all this confusion, when many are 
questioning whether Methodism’s days of evangelistic 
triumph are gone forever, the news of our young 
people’s achievements come like w r ord of the arrival 
of fresh troops in the crisis of battle, or like the 
opening of the sluice gates for a parching Hood 
River orchard. 

For the Epworth League is tackling the job of 
evangelism and succeeding at it amazingly. The 
Win-My-Chum idea has swept the country. Every 
year reports of tangible results multiply. Thou- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


51 


sands of Methodist youth are for the first time be¬ 
ing led into a living and vital experience of reli¬ 
gion. Other thousands are accepting Christ and 
consecrating their lives to his service. These cam¬ 
paigns constitute one of the most hopeful and cheer¬ 
ing types of evangelism now being carried on in the 
church. 

Epworth League evangelism has many things in 
its favor. 

For one thing, it deals with the adolescent crowd 
just at a time when great decisions are normally 
made. 

Its whole program of devotion, Christian comrade¬ 
ship, and recreation predisposes young people to a 
favorable consideration of the claims of Christ. 

It utilizes its own crowd and acts upon the prin¬ 
ciple that like wins like. 

It has developed a specific method in the Win- 
My-Chum Campaign that is built on sound psy¬ 
chology and common sense, and it works. 

But aside from the fact of the conversions secured 
and the deepening of religious experience, its most 
valuable contribution is in teaching to a multitude 
of youth the life habit of evangelism. To people 
the church with a race of folks with that spirit and 
passion and point of view should change the whole 
evangelistic outlook for the future. 

These are some of the ways in which the stream 
of young life is irrigating and enriching the church 
through the League, and is helping to multiply the 
output. 

No greater service can be rendered the world in 


52 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


this hour than by every possible means to increase 
the effectiveness of the church. From every quarter 
come indications of how desperately the world is 
counting upon her in this crisis. 

The American Bankers’ Association in their an¬ 
nual meeting recently declared that before the world 
could hope for economic recovery there must be 
moral and spiritual recovery, that if the nations 
would liquidate their debts, they must first liquidate 
their hates. 

Former President Wilson stirred the thinking 
people of the world when he wrote a while ago, “Our 
civilization cannot survive materially unless it is 
redeemed spiritually.” 

There is no other source to which the world may 
look for moral recovery and spiritual redemption 
than the church. Lloyd George is quoted as say¬ 
ing that the one hope of the world is the church. 
It is the supreme sponsor of things spiritual, the one 
institution with the message and the dynamic the 
world needs. 

There is no bigger business in which young peo¬ 
ple can be engaged to-day than in understanding 
and loving the church, and giving of their means, 
their time, their very lives for its strengthening. 

That is the supreme mission of the Epworth 
League. It does not exist for itself. It has no 
excuse for being for its own sake. Its program 
is the church’s program. Its task is to turn the 
stream of young life into the church in order that 
by such refreshing and renewal the church may 
not fail civilization in this hour. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


53 


That is a sizable responsibility. It is enough to 
make youth tremble, not only with fear lest he fail, 
but with a sense of privilege for so divine a com¬ 
mission. It is enough to quicken Epworthians to 
a fresh appraisal of their task, and to call them to 
a new consecration. 

The channels of the Epworth League have been 
proved to be effective for the church’s irrigation. 
But they have been only partially filled. The life 
of every youth is a spring that must contribute its 
own rivulet of living water to some stream some¬ 
where. Multitudes of youth are still allowing their 
lives to become tributary to streams of waste that 
lead away from the world’s most vital need. Per¬ 
haps it may be because no one has ever made the 
effort to connect them up with more worthy chan¬ 
nels. 

If the Epworth League, only half understood and 
appreciated as it often is, only indifferently pro¬ 
moted as is too frequently the case, has been able so 
profoundly to affect the life and fruitfulness of the 
church, what could she not do if her stream were 
augmented by tributaries from millions more of the 
youth for whom she is responsible and her banks 
ran full to the brim! 

That is the challenge. If it can be met, then 
Benjamin Kidd’s prophecy may yet come true and 
we may yet see the new mind and the new earth in 
this generation. 


54 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


CHAPTER II 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 
Introduction: Benjamin Kidd’s challenge. 

I. Side Lights on Pre-League Days. 

a. Whole church planned for older people. 

b. Youth repressed. 

II. Outburst of Young Life in Christian Endeavor 

and Epworth Leagues. 

The natural reaction. 

a. Organization of Epworth League. 

b. Brief summary of developing program. 

III. How the Epworth League of to-day, as an irri¬ 

gation system, turns the stream of youth into 
the church, to multiply its fruitfulness. 

1. Epworth League enriches the leadership of the 
church. 

a. World’s need for fresh leadership. 

b. How youth has supplied it in many crises. 

c. The church’s need of leadership. 

d. Contribution being made by the Epworth 

League. 

(a) Training in leadership in local chapters. 

(b) Furnishes guiding principle for highest 

decision. 

(c) Supplies information of Kingdom move¬ 

ment. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


55 


(d) Presents sane and intelligent appeal at 

Institutes. 

(e) Figures from Life Service Department. 

2. Epwortk League enriches the program of Chris¬ 

tian Missions. 

a. Strategic importance of the missionary 

enterprise. 

b. Epworth League’s contribution to it. 

(a) Extensive program of missionary educa¬ 

tion. 

(b) Education and enrollment of Tithing 

Stewards. 

(c) Enlisting Life Service candidates for 

mission field. 

(d) Twenty-four-Hour-Day World Program, 

carrying Epworth League onto foreign 
fields. 

3. Epworth League enriches the program of Reli¬ 

gious Education. 

a. Need for supplementing present program. 

b. Way in which Epworth League supplements 

it. 

(a) Courses of study in local chapters. 

(b) Institute Program. 

(c) Books and Publications. 

(d) Inspires young people to go to College. 

4. Epworth League enriches program of evangel¬ 

ism. 

a. Need for reenforcement here. 

b. Epworth League evangelism. • 

(a) Deals with period when decisions are 
normal. 


56 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


(b) Whole program predisposes to decisions. 

(c) Uses like to win like. 

(d) Win-My-Chum plan a great success. 

(e) Establishes life habit of evangelism. 

IV. Importance of church in world to-day and a 
call to Epworth League for new consecra¬ 
tion for strengthening of the church. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. How much truth is there in the criticism that 
the League is clannish and self-sufficient, and does 
not feel that it is a part of the church? 

2. Where this is true, how can it be overcome? 

3. What practical ways can be suggested for 
establishing a closer tie between League and 
church ? 

4. What is the best way to secure from the older 
folks a more adequate appreciation and encourage¬ 
ment of the work of the League? 

5. In what other ways than those discussed in 
the text does the League enrich the life of the 
church ? 

6. Is your chapter strong or weak as measured by 
types of service mentioned? 

7. What is your chapter doing to give its mem¬ 
bers a vision of the importance, of the church’s pro¬ 
gram in the world today? 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


57 


CHAPTER III 

THE LOCAL CHAPTER: THE WORKING UNIT 
OF THE CRUSADE 

The Wise Man of long ago seized upon the ant 
for an illustration, and counseled a study of her 
ways as a road to wisdom. Perhaps if he were 
seeking to-day to drive home to young people the 
importance of their task in the local chapter of the 
Epworth League, he would add the bee to his col¬ 
lection. The making of honey may have its limita¬ 
tions as a figure to illustrate the product of the 
Epworth League. But the relation of the bee to his 
own enterprise furnishes an illustration that is well 
on the way toward being perfect. It is said that 
the bee, starting in May, working through all the 
days to October, traversing hundreds of miles, visit¬ 
ing thousands of flowers, and sucking the nectar 
from a million petals and stamens, gathers a little 
more than a quarter of a teaspoonful of honey. 

That little quarter of a teaspoonful seems insig¬ 
nificant as compared to the hundreds of tons of 
honey exported by a State like California alone. 
The immense quantities of the finished product are 
impressive, and we are fascinated by the story the 
bee men tell, of how the apiaries are built and how 
the honey is gathered and shipped. But important 
as is the work of these men, the amount of honey 
produced by their efforts alone would be exactly 


58 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


none. It is only by the industrious efforts of each 
individual bee, massed together by the thousands in 
hives, each contributing his little quarter of a tea¬ 
spoonful, that the splendid mass of dewy sweetness 
is at last produced for the world. The individual 
hive, with its queen and its swarm of bees, is the 
working unit and without their product the whole 
honey-making business would be nil. 

The Epworth League organization taken in the 
aggregate is impressive. Its product, as we have 
seen, is of high and unique value, whether viewed 
from the standpoint of its service to youth or its 
enrichment of the life of the church. So essential 
is its part in the whole Kingdom enterprise, that 
an altogether new appraisal is being put upon it, 
and increasing numbers of young people are dis¬ 
covering that nowhere could they make a more 
profitable investment of their lives than here. 

But let us not allow ourselves to be deceived at 
this point. The Epworth League is not something 
in the abstract. Important as it is to gather figures 
in the aggregate, and useful and necessary as cer¬ 
tain pieces of general League machinery may be, 
the real product of the League would be zero if we 
depended on these alone. The working unit in the 
whole process is the local chapter with its leaders 
and its swarm of youthful workers. They are en¬ 
gaged in the actual business of the League. Viewed 
by itself, their product may seem rather small and 
insignificant. But it is their promotion of this 
many-sided Christian program, enlisting personal 
participation r of the young life of the church, that 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


59 


brings the coveted product, without which there 
would be no need for general League machinery and 
no general statistics to gather. 

The Local Chapter. I. Its Importance 

Let the young officer or worker in that little home 
League take heart. Let him envy no man anywhere 
his job. For he himself has on his hands a piece of 
work which for its far-reaching and everlasting im¬ 
portance is second to none. The success or failure 
of the whole League enterprise must at last depend 
on him and his like. The stirring crusade for the 
life of youth, of which we have spoken, has for its 
field of conquest any place and every place the 
world ’round that chances to be inhabited by youth. 
And his own community, be it big or little, is one 
sector of that field. The winning of the whole 
crusade is possible only as each small sector of the 
field is won. 

The question of method, therefore, in this crusade, 
is for the most part a question of local-chapter 
method. Something must be said later about the 
more widespread aspects of the enterprise, but, as 
a matter of fact, these are but servants and aids of 
the local chapter and derive their chief importance 
from their usefulness in strengthening and co¬ 
ordinating local-chapter achievements. Our first 
and major interest, therefore, must be in seeing 
that these achievements be at the maximum, and 
that as much of the full-rounded program of “young 
people’s work for young people” be carried out in 
every community as can be adapted to local needs. 


60 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


II. Its Difficulties 

The successful promotion of local chapter work 
must be in the face of certain inherent difficulties. 

First, there is the difficulty of dealing, not with 
a permanent and abiding crowd, but with a proces¬ 
sion. The League crowd comes and goes. A full 
generation for Epworthians is not so long a period, 
probably averaging at most not over six or eight 
years for the senior chapter. This is a part of the 
alluring fascination of it, but is not the least of the 
problems. About the time the finest leaders are 
trained and developed they go off to college, or are 
honored by some responsibility elsewhere in the 
church, and a new crop of leaders must be grown. 
A chapter which one year is succeeding splendidly 
may be suddenly set back by a wholesale but 
natural exodus of leaders. That is a part of the 
glory of the League—its unselfish contribution of 
new blood to other organizations in the church— 
but it necessitates rebuilding the chapter year after 
year and persistently discovering new and latent 
powers in the younger members, and disciplining 
them against the day when they must step into 
places of leadership. 

Second, there is the difficulty of dealing con¬ 
stantly with the inexperienced and the awkward. 
There is always the danger of failing to see that the 
heart of the job is not in getting a piece of work 
done smoothly and perfectly, but in developing a 
worker to the place where he can do his work 
smoothly and perfectly. That is why not only out- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


61 


siders, but even Epworthians themselves, often 
wrongly estimate a piece of work that is done rather 
blunderingly. They are too likely to set it down as 
a flat failure; whereas that very blunder itself may 
mark a real epoch in the unfolding of the person¬ 
ality of that youth who blundered. In the nature 
of the case, youth must begin in the awkward stage, 
and fortunate indeed is that chapter whose leaders 
can so surround the younger and inexperienced with 
sympathy and encouragement, that they have a 
chance to blossom out like flowers in the sunlight. 

Third , there is the difficulty of competing with 
many other interests in an already overcrowded 
schedule. Most items in the schedule of youth will 
be perfectly laudable and necessary. Some others 
may be clear contradictions of all that the League 
stands for. The problem here is not to so overload 
a Leaguer as to sacrifice any vital interest, nor, on 
the other hand, to attempt to force the elimination 
of undesirable items by restriction and prohibition. 
It is rather to make the League program so vital a 
contribution in his personal enrichment as to give 
him positive aid and inspiration for the doing of 
every other necessary task; and to so occupy his 
time with what is worth while as to crowd out what 
is unwholesome and undesirable. To do that will 
make Johnny Jones take a new interest in his 
algebra, and at the same time lure him away from 
the pool hall almost without his knowing it. 

III. Its Objectives 

There are certain general objectives that should 


62 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


be borne in mind in securing the largest results 
from local-chapter activity. 

First, it is above all important that not only 
officers but membership also have a vision of the 
nature of the program known as the Epworth 
League, which has grown up out of the experience 
of years—what are its characteristic features, what 
is the nature of the service it seeks to render to 
young people, to the church and to the Kingdom in 
general. (See Chapters I and II.) 

Second, it is necessary by some hard thinking 
and study, to translate this general program into 
terms of the local church and chapter, and the 
specific young people with whom they are to deal. 
How much of the program is practical to attempt in 
our situation? What would it mean, in terms of 
concrete plans for this year? 

Third, it is necessary to enlist the workers whose 
help will be needed to put this program into effect, 
and then to give them such training and-suggestion 
and guidance as is possible to do the work assigned. 
The standard chapter will seek to relate every young 
person to some interest. 

Fourth, and chiefly, with a vision of what is to 
be done, and very definite plans as to method, and 
a force of workers enlisted and trained, the big task 
then is to engineer the program and see it through. 
As one enthusiastic Leaguer expressed it, our job is 
to “keep it going, bigger, harder, faster every year.” 

IV. Its Working Principles 

Some general principles may be suggested at this 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


63 


point that have been found helpful in promoting the 
local chapter program. 

First: The Epworth League is subordinate to the 
church, and its passion is to do everything possible 
to fit in with the church program, and to aid in 
the work of the church. A League chapter that 
becomes an isolated, self-satisfied clique should 
change its name. We ought to be jealous of the 
name “Epworth League” as standing for the most 
loyal church boosters the pastor and official board 
have on their list. 

Second: The training of workers is vastly more 
important than getting the work done without 
stumbling or blundering. It is often much easier 
to do the work yourself than go to the trouble of 
getting others to do it, and it is likely to be done 
better. But is such a policy fair to others who 
should have their chance to try their hand? 

Third: Dynamics are more important than me¬ 
chanics. We are dealing with folks and not 
merely with an organization. The Epworth League 
is made for young people and not young people for 
the League. Everything in the League should be 
made to serve the highest interests of youth and the 
church. Keep the League human with warm per¬ 
sonal interest in folks. 

Fourth: It is well to remember that while folks 
come first, right organization and method are nec¬ 
essary. The best of spirit and intentions may be 
wasted without suitable channels of expression. 
There are a successful and an unsuccessful way of 
doing things. Others have wrestled with the same 


64 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


problems that bother you. You can profit by their 
experience. There are many helps available on suc¬ 
cessful method. Get them, study them carefully 
and put them into use. Knowing the correct wav 
may spell the difference between success and failure. 

Fifth: All helps are meant only to be sugges¬ 
tions, not to stifle originality, but as a starting-point 
for your own initiative. The Epworth-League his¬ 
tory is rich with the story of the resourcefulness of 
young people and the spontaneous way in which 
the program has developed. If the League should 
now become a mechanical thing, with a “cut-and- 
dried,” “handed down” program, it would be a com¬ 
plete reversal of that very policy which has been its 
chief claim to distinction and uniqueness in the past. 
And the best plans and methods remain to be 
thought out yet. The experiences of other Leaguers 
in the past are valuable only as suggestions of what 
may be done. They cease to have value if they be¬ 
come stereotyped forms and limit the freedom and 
initiative of each new crowd of youth. Remember 
that you have your own local situation and your 
own particular problem. Get all the ideas you can, 
derive all help possible from what others have done 
before you, and then use your own brains as you 
tackle your job. 

Sixth: Make your program broad and compre¬ 
hensive. See that the chapter does not “go to seed” 
on one thing. Keep before you the whole big inclu¬ 
sive world wide program of young people’s work. 
Check up often to see that each feature is receiving 
deserved attention. Remember that we have enough 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


65 


lop-sided and “single-track” church members al¬ 
ready. Our job is to develop all-round symmetrical 
Christians with Kingdom vision, equipped to fit in 
wherever the Master may call them. 

Seventh: Keep first things first. Above all ques¬ 
tions of methods which are but the means is the 
question of spirit and life. Keep in mind the 
notable words of the Epworth League pledge, that 
the great end to which all means should contribute 
is that we may attain for ourselves and help others 
to attain the highest New Testament standard of 
experience and life. 

V. Its Organization 

The accompanying chart of “Program, Subjects 
and Ideals” prepared by the Central Office sets forth 
in most compact and illuminating fashion the whole 
organization and plan of the Epworth League. 
That chart should hang in every League room, 
where it could be a constant challenge to every mem¬ 
ber, and prevent forgetfulness of some essential 
things. 

Note some of the special features illustrated in 
this chart. 

First: It suggests Christ at the center. The whole 
program of League activities for young people is 
built around the theory that only in Christ can full¬ 
ness of life come to youth. Were we free (and we 
are) to search the world round for that personality 
and influence which would be most dynamic and! 
wholesome in leading young people to the most per- 
feet completeness of living, sheer consideration of 


G 6 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


the facts of the case would compel us to choose 
Christ as the only one who would deserve to be 
placed at the center of such a program. 


Program-Subjects and Ideals of the 
Ep worth League 



Second: Note the fact that all League activities 
come within the limits of Christian consecration. 
Does that limit at first seem too narrow? Are 

















FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


67 


there young people who would fear that from within 
those restricting limits some things dear and essen¬ 
tial to their happiness would be barred? True 
there is an exclusiveness about that circle, but not 
one detail is excluded which makes for fuller life for 
youth. Whatever is barred is such as would sub¬ 
tract from rather than add to the richness of life 
for young people. But one forgets all about that 
negative feature when by a little reflection we come 
to see the inclusiveness of that circle. Note the 
range and breadth of interests included there. Per¬ 
haps not all have yet been named or thought of. 
We may safely predict that whatever else may in 
the future be discovered as essential to the highest 
life of youth will safely pass the test of being in 
harmony with Christ at the center, and coming 
within the possibility of Christian consecration. 
And whatever fails to meet that test may well be 
pronounced as detrimental to youth's highest life. 

Once these great principles are observed, the rest 
falls naturally into place. Lender the friendly in¬ 
terest and counsel of the pastor, the executive 
officers that are responsible for the conduct of the 
chapter are the president, the secretary, and the 
treasurer. 

The work is divided into four departments as 
indicated, with a vice-president placed in leader¬ 
ship, assuming oversight over such important inter¬ 
ests as Spiritual Work, World Evangelism, Social 
Service, and Recreation and Culture. A separate 
chapter will be devoted to a study of each of these 
departments. 


68 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


VI. Its Executive Leaders 

Since we are concerned in this present discus¬ 
sion with the local chapter as a whole, its program, 
oversight, and general success, we may well devote 
some time to the specific study of the executive 
officers most responsible for’ this task—the presi¬ 
dent, the secretary and the treasurer. 

1. The President.— (1) His Task. (2) His Tools. 
(3) His Methods. 

(1) His Task 

If all that has been said of the importance of 
local chapter achievements is true, then the presi¬ 
dent may well both tremble in humility and swell 
with pride. For upon him, along with a host of 
other presidents, rests a big responsibility. 

A. The president is first of all the general execu¬ 
tive officer —the manager and promoter. It is 
his business to see that the whole League “goes.” 
He is the engineer who is to run the “Epworth 
Engine.” 

(A) He is expected, together with the Cabinet, 
to assign each member to a department for 
work. Evidence of real leadership is not in 
demonstrating how much you can do yourself, 
but in getting the largest number to work. 

(B) He is responsible for seeing that the pro¬ 
gram of the local chapter is worked out by 
the assistance of the vice-presidents, and goals 
set for the year’s work. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


69 


(C) He presides at business and Cabinet meet¬ 
ings, planning for these meetings beforehand,, 
that they may really get business done. 

(D) He is responsible for correlating the work 
of the four departments, overseeing their pro¬ 
gress, and giving counsel and encouragement 
when needed. 

(E) He must stand ready to repair the ma¬ 
chinery whenever it breaks down—in other 
words, to keep every part of the work going, 
filling up vacancies where they occur, so that 
the work may not suffer. 

(F) He should be responsible for seeing that 
reports of the chapter’s work do not fail to 
reach proper district, Conference, and Central 
Office authorities. 

(G) If there is any job that needs doing, the 
president must see it and get somebody to do 
it. 

B. The president must also be the chief inspira¬ 
tional officer. 

(A) Must have the work of the League on his 
heart. 

(B) Must be unto the League “instead of eyes.’ r 
He must have a vision of the whole program 
and help others to see it. 

(C) Must know how to meet people and keep 
morale of the League at its best. 

(D) Must have the power of enthusing others, 
and inspiring them to do the work assigned 
them. 


70 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


(E) Must be a “friend in chief’ of the whole 
League, the shepherd of the flock. 

C. The president, furthermore, is the chief con - 
nectional officer. 

(A) He relates the League to the other organ¬ 
izations of the church. 

(B) He is a member of the Quarterly Confer¬ 
ence, and thus keeps the church in touch with 
the League and the League with the church. 

(C) He connects the League with the com¬ 
munity, the district, the Conference, and the 
Central Office. 

(2) His Tools 

There are certain minimum tools which the presi¬ 
dent will need for his task. 

A. The Epworth Herald and Quarterly. 

B. The Efflcieut Epworthian Series—all of them. 

C. A book on parliamentary law, such as Robert’s 
Rules of Order. 

D. All new plans and pamphlets issued by the 
Central Office. 

E. Literature issued by the district, Conference, 
and Institute. 

F. Good books on various aspects of the work 
—books to loan as well as to own. 

(3) His Methods 

A. Methods for the monthly cabinet, department, 
business, and social evenings. 

The business side of the chapter has more value 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


71 


than is sometimes realized. It should train 
young people to do things “decently and in order ” 
If conducted rightly, it helps to make the League 
a real democracy, where each has a voice. It 
insures the interest of a much larger number in 
what is being done. It will likely result in vast 
improvement of plans, when all have opportunity 
to help in forming them. Here are several ways 
which have been found to work: 

(A) The Montana Plan: The “Four-in-One” 
League Evening. 

a. The Cabinet Meeting: What to do? 

Where ? 

(a) At six o’clock, the Cabinet should lunch 
together or meet immediately after lunch. 

(b) Each officer in the Cabinet should 
begin work on his monthly report. 

(c) This is the place to institute new plans 
and methods for the whole League. 

(d) To nominate candidates for member¬ 
ship. 

(e) To assign members to departments. 

b. From 7 to 7:30 the department committees 

meet separately. 

(a) The department head reviews the work 
of the department and continues his report. 

(b) Committees plan new work for the 
department and study the general program 
of the League. 

(c) Committees assign to every member 
some task. 


72 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


c. The Business Meeting. It should be called 
promptly at 7:30 o’clock. 

(a) Reports of the month’s work should 
now be reviewed and completed and 
handed to the local secretary to be for¬ 
warded to the proper authorities. 

(b) Election of new members. 

(c) Bills allowed. 

(d) Old Business. 

(e) New Business. 

(f) Devotions at the close. Why? There 
is something definite to pray for, and every 
Leaguer can hitch his prayer to the task in 
hand. 

/ 

d. Social Hour. 

(a) In a well-governed League all business 
should be transacted by 8 o’clock. 

(b) The songs learned at the Institute ses¬ 
sion make a happy transition from business 
to pleasure. 

This Four-in-One Evening has been 
found to work. It is a time-saver, and it 
makes for team work between departments. 
If conducted in a businesslike way, it will 
get the Leaguers out and get the business 
done. Try it! 

(B) Other methods for Cabinet and business 
meetings that have been tested by experience, 
a. “Business meeting combined with social. 
Have your social in the early part of the 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


73 


evening, then a short, snappy business meet¬ 
ing, then the refreshments. They will all 
come up for the social, and they will stay 
through the business meeting to get the re¬ 
freshments.” 

b. “President confers with each vice-presi¬ 
dent in advance about plans for his depart¬ 
ment. 

“(a) At monthly Cabinet meeting, the de¬ 
tails of the program for each department 
are coordinated and approved. 

(b) Monthly business meeting in connec¬ 
tion with the social. Business snappy, not 
over forty-five minutes. Cabinet presents 
plans for the O. K. of the League.” 

c. “We create interest in our business meet¬ 
ings by always having some real business to 
transact. Create spirit of victory over some 
work completed, and insist on allowing time 
for a devotional part of the meeting.” 

d. “Business meeting in connection with so¬ 
cial. Cabinet presents plans. Free discus¬ 
sion. By all means, have refreshments (not 
elaborate). Another feature of business 
meeting that creates interest and gets many 
to work is our ‘League paper’ similar to 
high-school and college papers. Copy read 
at meeting consists of missionary items, so¬ 
cial events, and jokes. We call it ‘The 
Epworthian’s Transcript.’ ” 

e. “Monthly ‘Pot Luck’ supper, for Cabinet 


74 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


and business meetings, followed by special 
feature of entertainment.” 

B. Methods for rallying forces in the fall and 
launching the year’s program. 

(A) Rally Day 

a. “Forces are rallied by means of a rousing 
get-together at the opening of school, and a 
live-wire Rally Day, opening with a Morn¬ 
ing Watch service at 6 or 6:30 o’clock.” 

b. “Sent out letters prior to Rally Day and 
urged people to come. Then presented pro¬ 
gram for year, previously worked out by 
Cabinet and called on all who would pledge 
backing to come and stand behind officers. 
This worked very well.” 

c. “Big social during week preceding Rally 
Day. Whole program presented for year’s 
work.” 

d. “Make use of delegation which attended 
Institute during the summer to lead the Rally 
Meeting, and they transmit their enthusiasm 
to the rest.” 

(B) Formulating the year’s program. 

a. “The Program of Activities as outlined by 
the Central Office is secured by the president 
and supplied to each officer; from this and 
local needs, each officer works out plans for 
his department. At the September Cabinet 
meeting, each officer brings his plans, written 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


75 

out, for year. At this meeting, with help 
of pastor, we check up conflicting dates, and 
arrange a definite program for the year. 
After adoption at the business meeting 
the program is published in the church 
calendar.” 

(C) Method of getting largest possible number 
busy at some task. 

The importance of setting every member to 
work at something worth while need not here 
be emphasized. Not only will the volume of 
actual achievement be largely increased, but 
the business of developing leadership will there¬ 
by be multiplied. Here are some plans that 
have been tested out in actual practice: 

a. “In the first place, every single member 
was forced to pledge to the budget, or his 
name was taken from the roll [Whew! A 
little more courage like that might work revo¬ 
lutions in raising church budgets too.] Then 
in the fall, slips were passed containing a 
graph of the activities of every department, 
with a place for each to check his first and 
second choice. When the slips were in every¬ 
body’s hands, the Cabinet, one at a time, pre¬ 
sented the program of their department and 
asked for workers in the particular com¬ 
mittees. For instance, the Third Department 
asked for as many volunteers for Sunshine 
Bands as needed, and got them ; and others 
in similar fashion. It was possible in that 


76 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


way to line up practically every member that 
was any good at all in some definite work. 
What was more, every member was called on 
bv the Cabinet for something later.” 


4 SUGGESTED OUTLINE OF EPWORTH LEAGUE ORGANIZATION- 


1 PA3TOR 


2. PRESIDENT 


*J.L: SUP'T 

REV J.C THOMPSON 

CYRUS SUMNER 

RUTH STINE 


Secure attendance of 
District & Sub-district 
Radies, Conventions 
and Institutes- 



4 

SECRETARY 

DOROTHY GOULD 


1 

| 

Coirtrmttee 

5 

HISTORIAN 


Willard Foster 

6. 

PUBLICITY 


L. C Tnomas 


7. 

TREASURER 

MRS. B. .WASSELL 




i Comm 

8. 24 MR. OAY-LEAGUE 


A.J Van Alatyne 

a. 

COLLECTOR 


B«n. Wassail 


10. 

FIRST V.P. 


IS - SECOND V.P. 


”■ THIRD V.P. 


** FOURTH V.P. 

MARY WAS3ELL 

ELIZABETH SMITMEM 

MARION STINE 

HAROLO FOWKC 




I 


1 


I T* -1 

I 

Committee 1 


Compnitloe i 


| Committee 


Committee 

11 DEVOTIONAL MEETINGS 


16. MISSION STUDY, 


21. SICK CALLS 


26. SOCIALS 

Mrs. L. Nielson 


Gladys Wilson 


Mildred Robinson 


Mrs H. Prstt 

1!. BIBLE STUDY OUARTTtlY 


17 READ1N6 CLUB 


22. RELIEF WORK 


27. MEMBERSHIP 

Edmund Stine 


Celia Smith 


Mr. H. S. Park 


Miss Millie Kelly 

1* HORN. WATCH & JUttlEAMI 


16. MISSION POSTERS 


23. COMMUNITY SURVEY 


28. HERALDS 

Harjori* Lewis 


Jennie Crabtree 


Mtss.M. P. Abroms 


Frank Re*d 

14. PftSONAt EVANGELISM 


19- STEWARDSHIP 


CIVIC MATTERS 


29.SPORTS a ATHLETICS 


L. Nielsen 


J. A. Anderson 


C. W. Stine 


John Engtcrt 




■* MEMBERSHIP *- 



26 

Nelson Green 

14 

Raymond Randall 

21 

Dr. S.L. HorrtT'ighou&e 

23 

Inex Grantier 

26 

Charlotte Simmons 

29 

Ray Lasher 

21 

Mrs. Homrighouse 

28 

Mrs. F. Welcome 

zs 

Margaret Robinson 

ll 

George Ingraham 

27 

Gifberl Ireland 

27 

Mr. P.H. Clark 

3 

Francis Wasaelf 

26 

Horry Mead 

14 

Ellifi Garrison 

3 

Mrs.P H.Clark 

& 

Ben.Craig Wassell 

II 

Ernest Habel 

16 

Ido Brown 

14 

Harry Jacob* 

IS 

Georg* Myers 

II 

Pearl Blanchard 

14 

Alta Polerr 

26 

Chester Loo man 

12 

Volda Mae Bentley 

13 

Elsie Von Du sen 

23 

Florence Pepper 

?4 

Frank Verts 

18 

Vera Iveson 

22 

Florence Becker 

14 

Flora La Grange 

23 

Edward Blake 

l© 

Caeile Iveson 

17 

Ethel Hoyt 

26 

Florence Hanford 



18 

Jennie Crabtree 

27 

Leta Murdock 

29 

Mariam Rouse 



27 

William Rice 

22 

Mrs. 0.6. Adkins 

|5. 

Lucile Rouse 



ZB 

Robert Rice 

29 

O. Penfield Dales 

•6 

Joseph Pavone 



n 

David Smith 

19 

Le Roy Rix 

l*± 

T. 1. Brdoks 





















































































































FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


77 


b. A plan somewhat similar is suggested by 
Louis Nielson, district president, Schenec¬ 
tady, New York. The accompanying chart 
is his outline of chapter organization 
by officers, departments and committees. Be¬ 
low is the membership roll. Each particular 
task in the entire League is numbered. In 
front of the name of each member is a column 
for the number of the specific task to which 
he has been assigned. This affords a very 
suggestive graph of the plan of organiza¬ 
tion, and also provides a convenient method 
of keeping a record of the assignments made. 

(D) Methods of successful activities for the 

summer months. 

a. “The best thing we have tried is to have 
the League and church combine for the eve¬ 
ning service during July and August, and 
the young people be responsible for the first 
part of the service. They plan the music, 
the devotions, and all opening exercises, and 
the church people provide the speaker.” 

b. “Our stress is placed on the devotional 
meeting and social activities. We have a 
May, Walk, June Ramble, Fourth of July 
Picnic, August Cottage Picnic, September 
Corn Roast, etc.” 

c. “For several years, our League has had 
charge of the church prayer meeting during 
August.” 

d. “Socials, hikes, wiener roasts, athletics, 


78 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


outdoor services, booth festival, lawn fetes, 
camp fires, bus rides, early Morning Watch 
services at lake, conventions, institutes, 
watermelon feeds, tennis tournaments, swim¬ 
ming parties, bacon fries, etc.” 

(E) Methods for maintaining cordial relation¬ 
ship between League and church. 

a. “We plan to have the young people feel 
they are the church. They enter into the 
general program of the church—prayer meet¬ 
ing and Sunday services. A ‘Friendly Com¬ 
mittee’ greets people at the door.” 

b. “By keeping before the young people the 
idea that the League is a training school and 
a preparation for the larger work of the 
church.” 

c. “On three occasions, I have made three- 
minute speeches before the church congrega¬ 
tion presenting special activities of the 
League that demand church cooperation, 
such as Win-My-Chum Campaign, tithing, 
etc., and always received cordial support. I 
think the League should go more than half 
way to show the church what they are doing 
and ask for their support. Publicity of 
League doings is good. The spirit of coopera¬ 
tion and sympathy between League and 
church depends largely on the right relation¬ 
ship between pastor and League president.” 

d. “We contribute to the church budget, take 
part in all church enterprises, offer our serv- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


79 


ices wherever needed, such as distribution of 
literature, personal house-to-house canvass 
for new people, etc.” 

2. The Secretary. — (1) His Task. (2) His 
Tools. (3) His Methods. 

(1) His Task 

A. He is the chapter’s recording agent, and 
should keep— 

(A) Accurate and legible records of Cabinet 
meetings, business meetings, etc. 

(B) Records of membership, correct name, ad¬ 
dress, telephone number, assignment to depart¬ 
ments. 

(C) Records of Tithers, Study Class lists, 
Epworth Herald subscribers. 

(D) Records of all sorts of facts as to League 
doings, achievements, attendance at devotional 
meetings, Win-My-Chum meetings, etc. 

B. He is the chapter’s historian. 

(A) From his data recorded through the year 
he is equipped to write a brief story of the year’s 
achievements. 

(B) Such a story would be not only interest¬ 
ing but immensely valuable in planning future 
year’s programs. 

C. He is the chapter’s custodian. 

(A) Keeps all supplies on hand, such as re¬ 
port blanks, pledge cards, membership cards, 
topic cards, etc. 


80 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


(B) It is his business to see that this stock is 
replenished in ample time. 

D, He is the chapter’s correspondence agent. 

(A) Connecting link between chapter and Con¬ 
ference, district, Central Office, etc. 

(B) Should answer all letters promptly. 

(C) May write letters of introduction for 
Leaguers removing to other communities. 

E. He is the chapter’s publicity agent. 

(A) Doctor Brummitt well says that the secre¬ 
tary is not the “se<;ret-ary”—a mine of inac¬ 
cessible facts—but the secretary—a mine of in¬ 
spiring and refreshing information. 

(2) His Tools 

A. A good record book for the regular records of 
the chapter—preferably a loose-leaf book. 

B. A scrapbook in which to paste programs, 
publicity material, and other records. 

C. If possible, a simple card file, for membership 
lists, tithing lists, etc. 

D. A simple filing system for correspondence. 

E. A catalogue of Epworth League supplies. 

F. Books on publicity such as Reisner’s Church 
Publicity. 

(3) His Methods 

A. Method of organization. 

(A) Assignment of members to secretary’s 
committee should be made at same time as other 
committee assignments. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


81 


(B) Should organize two committees to care 
for various details of secretarial work such as 
the following: 

a. Historian committee, responsible to keep 
data and write brief story of year’s activities. 
Such a history will become increasingly valu¬ 
able. 

b. Publicity Committee. 

(a) Provide pastor each week with written 
announcement of leader and topic for bul¬ 
letin or pulpit notice, or for his church 
notices to the newspaper. 

(b) Attractive posters of League doings 
are a big asset. 

(c) Bombard absentees with post cards. 

(d) Use newspaper and window displays, 
{e) Watch Epworth Herald for ideas re¬ 
garding publicity. 

B. Method of keeping records. 

(A) The Epworth League Secretary’s Loose- 
Leaf record book should contain : 

a. League Constitution, and pledge, from 
Central Office, and copy of local by-laws. 

b. Names and addresses: 

(a) The Methodist Book Concern and Cen¬ 
tral Office, 740 Rush St., Chicago, Ill. 

(b) State or Conference Cabinet Officers. 

(c) District Officers. 

(d) Local Cabinet. 


82 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


c. Complete membership roll. 

(a) If numbering system is used for mak¬ 
ing assignments to departments and com¬ 
mittees, the secretary should record num¬ 
ber opposite each name. 

(b) Would be helpful to arrange the list 
according to departments and committees. 

d. Catalogue of supplies from the Central 
Office. 

e. Copy of all officers’ reports for year. 

(a) For reference. 

(b) For annual report. 

(B) Alternative plan: A card file (for member¬ 
ship lists) which can be provided and indexed 
at small expense. 

a. List of active members. 

(a) Notations can be made on each card 
of facts about member. 

(b) If member moves away, his card can 
be placed in the “out-of-town” section and 
his address recorded. 

(c) If he transfers his membership to an¬ 
other chapter, this can be placed in the sec¬ 
tion of “Former members.” 

(d) Notations on his card of his later 
career would make interesting information 
for local chapter. 

b. Other lists such as Titliers, Herald Sub¬ 
scribers, Study Classes, Life Service Volun¬ 
teers, etc. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


83 


(C) Scrapbook for clippings, programs, pub¬ 
licity plans, etc. 

a. A good scrapbook is the “U-File-M,” to be 
obtained from the “U-File-M” Binder Manu¬ 
facturing Company, 1009 South Salina 
Street, Syracuse, New York. 

b. Such a book is very simple to operate and 
would become increasingly valuable as years 
went by. 

3. The Treasurer.— (1) His Task. (2) His 
Tools. (3) His Methods. 

(1) His Task 

The task of the treasurer is a more important one 
than is often appreciated. The work of the chapter 
does not require large amounts of money, but its 
program can be woefully handicapped and em¬ 
barrassed by slip-shod work here. The credit of an 
Epworth League Chapter is as important as an indi- 
viduaPs credit, and to have the “wherewithal” for 
the necessities is just as indispensable as for one’s 
own personal affairs. The treasurer can be the busi¬ 
ness executive for the chapter, the business con¬ 
science, zealously guarding the chapter's credit, but 
also, as one League worker put it, the “Finangelist” 
to “save souls and to raise money, and to save souls 
by separating them from their money.” To feel the 
financial pulse, and to insure the financial health of 
the chapter is no small task. 

A. He is responsible for the financing of the chap- 


84 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


ter’s program. No program can be put on with¬ 
out money. He must devise ways and means of 
raising the needed funds regularly and promptly. 

B. He should have some voice in determining 
size of budget to be raised. 

C. He must acquaint the chapter with its own 
financial needs. 

D. He should never rest until this budget is 
covered. 

E. He should present a neat and accurate report, 
each month, of the receipts and disbursements 
for the month. 

F. Since the League is the place for training 
leaders the treasurer has an opportunity to train 
not only his assistants but the entire chapter in 
careful and business-like methods. 

(2) His Tools , 

A. “League Dollars and Sense” from the Efficient 
Epworthian series. 

B. The Treasurer’s Financial Records. 

C. Literature from the Central Office on the 
“Twenty-four-Hour-Day Plan.” 

D. Literature on Stewardship. 

E. Receipt Books. 

F. Get from District and Conference, their litera¬ 
ture explaining obligation of local chapter to 
these funds. 

(3) His Methods 

A. Plan of Organization. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


85 


(A) The Treasurer may organize the workers 
assigned to him into two committees. 

a. The Twenty-four-Hour-Day Committee. 
Responsible for enrolling members as 
Twenty-four-Hour-Day Leaguers and for ex¬ 
plaining meaning and scope of this plan. 

b. The Committee on Collections. Respon¬ 
sible for collecting the pledges, following up 
delinquents, and stimulating regular giving 
among members. 

B. Give assistance to Cabinet in formulating the 
budget at the beginning of the year by furnish¬ 
ing “brass-tack” figures of former years, and the 
amount of estimated resources. 

C. Launch a plan of education. 

(A) As to the need. The only sure basis for 
raising money is on a felt need. The Leaguer 
should be made to feel the need of : 

a. The items in the local budget. 

b. The District and Conference Program. 

c. The Twenty-four-Hour-Day Program. 

(B) As to the relative value of money. Show 
Epworthians that spend thirty cents a week for 
movies or candy that the League is paramount 
to any pleasure. 

(C) As to what has been done with their 
money. Talk it up. 

D. A few methods that have worked: 

(A) The Envelope Plan. Secure envelopes 


86 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


from the Central Office. Some find it best to 
distribute the envelopes at the beginning of the 
meeting and collect them at the “offertory'’ 
period. 

(B) The Wall Chart. Prepare a chart with 
every member's name on it and a place to check 
fifty-two weekly payments. Hang this up in the 
League room. This chart can be made more 
elaborate and include other items also, such 
as—to indicate in each case name—Epworth 
Herald, Morning Watch, Tither, etc. 

(C) Stand at county or State Fair. 

(D) Pay Socials. 

(E) Pageants and Plays with special offering 
for the League. 

(F) Send out statements once a quarter as to 
the standing of each pledge. One League sends 
out envelope to each member with amount due j 
written on the outside and he returns it with 
the money. 

(G) Everlasting personal work is the key that 
unlocks the door to financial success. Have a 
staff of treasurer’s assistants who help collect 
pledges. 

(H) But all told, there is only one assured and 
approved financial method—namely tithing. ; 
Treasurer should cooperate with the second 
vice-president in promoting League wide stew¬ 
ardship. All other methods are mere make- \ 
shifts. “Bring ye all the tithe into the store¬ 
house.” How to promote tithing: 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


87 


a. Begin yourself. 

b. Get the rest of the Cabinet to begin. 

c. Form a band which will encourage one an¬ 
other, and will help others to see advantages 
of tithing. 

(I) Have treasurer’s books at every meeting 
and give Leaguers regular opportunities to pay 
up. 


CHAPTER III 

Suggested Teaching Outline 

Introduction: Figure of the hive full of bees as 
working unit, illustrating importance of local chap¬ 
ter in the general League enterprise. 

I. The Local Chapter: Its Importance. 

II. Its Difficulties. 

1. Deals with changing crowd. 

2. Deals with inexperienced and awkward. 

3. Deals with crowded schedule. 

III. Its Objectives. 

1. Vision and understanding of whole program of 

League. 

2. Translation into definite chapter program. 

3. Enlistment and training of workers. 

4. Carrying out the program. 

IV. Its Working Principles. 

1. Subordinate to and devoted to church. 


88 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


2. Developing inexperienced is the League’s task 

and glory. 

3. Keep personal interest in folks above organiza¬ 

tion. 

4. Make every effort to discover best methods. 

5. Don’t be slave to methods of others, but leave 

large place for initiative. 

C. Keep in mind whole program for training “all¬ 
round” Christians. 

7. Christian life and experience paramount. 

Y. Its Organization. 

1. Christ as center. 

2. All activities within circle of Christian con¬ 

secration. 

3. Departmental organization. 

YI. Its Executive Leaders. . 

1. The President. 

(1) His Task. 

(2) His Tools. 

(3) His Methods. 

2. The Secretary. 

(1) His Task. 

(2) His Tools. 

(3) His Methods. 

3. The Treasurer. 

(1) His Task. 

(2) His Tools. 

(3) His Methods. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


89 


Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. By way of review of the two preceding studies, 
discuss the question: “What is an Epworth League 
chapter for? What is its major business?” 

2. Is your chapter occupied with its main busi¬ 
ness, or is its time and energy consumed on unim¬ 
portant and secondary matters? 

3. Discuss ways in which the vision of the great 
central purposes of a League chapter may be im¬ 
pressed upon the membership and built into the 
program. 

4. Are there other “working principles” of chap¬ 
ter activity than those mentioned? Check up on 
your own chapter with reference to the question 
whether you are working by these principles. 

5. Is the circle of Christian Consecration (see 
chart, page G6) a safe and satisfactory boundary 
line within which all Christian activities of youth 
must be confined ? Is it a safe criterion by which to 
judge the rightness or the wrongness of any per¬ 
sonal or chapter policy or activity? Is it too ex¬ 
clusive? Is it sufficiently inclusive? 

6. How could such a criterion help to solve the 
question of a young Christian’s recreations and 
amusements ? 

7. Is your chapter making habitual effort to sup¬ 
ply newly elected officers with the proper tools and 
training for their office? If no such effort is being 
made, have you any right to expect efficient work in 
the oversight of your chapter? How can your prac¬ 
tice in this regard be improved? 


00 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


8. Check up the suggestions as to method of presi¬ 
dent, secretary, and treasurer with those employed 
in your chapter. Which of these suggestions might 
he put into effect by your cabinet ? 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


91 


CHAPTER IV 

THE FIRST DEPARTMENT: THE TASK OF 
BUILDING CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

“We have gone daffy over things like steam, elec¬ 
tricity, water power, buildings, railroads, and ships, 
and we have forgotten the human soul, upon which 
all of these things depend, and from which all of 
these things originate.” 

These are not the words of a preacher or an evan¬ 
gelist, who might be expected to say them, but of a 
statistical expert, whose word is eagerly read by 
business men everywhere. The statement should 
have additional weight because it is made by such 
a man as Roger Babson. He further says: “This 
religion which we talk about for an hour a week, on 
Sunday, is not only the vital force which protects 
our community, but it is the vital force which makes 
our communities. The power of our spiritual forces 
has not yet been tapped.” 

“Whoever spiritualizes democracy will save the 
world,” declares a certain thinker and student. The 
need of the hour is the tapping of these mighty spir¬ 
itual forces, that all of life might be spiritualized, 
and the world be saved. Only the employment of 
these spiritual forces is sufficient to build Chris¬ 
tian character, and character is the foundation of 
democracy. 


92 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Every summer innumerable tourists load down 
their running boards with camping supplies, crank 
up their “Lizzies,” and for a few days or weeks, live 
the fascinating life of the highway and the tourist 
camps. But what would the tourist’s life be with¬ 
out the illuminating study of the road signs, where¬ 
by he is guided to his destination? 

A faithful following of certain unmistakable road 
signs will lead the inquiring traveler in young peo¬ 
ple’s work to an overwhelming conviction concern¬ 
ing First-Department responsibility in the Epworth 
League. 

I. The Importance of Character-Building as a 
First-Department Responsibility 

First sign: The greatest need in the icorld of oar 
day is Christian character. That fact is substan¬ 
tiated in almost every daily newspaper and maga¬ 
zine. It is the great need in business, in politics, 
in industry, in international relations—everywhere. 
The real ills in the present world can be traced back 
to a breakdown in character. The whole structure 
of our civilization rests back upon a moral and spir¬ 
itual basis, and therefore the supreme need for sus¬ 
taining our civilization is Christian character. 

Second sign: The greatest business is the build¬ 
ing of Christian character. The automobile indus¬ 
try or the “movie” business may boast of their bil¬ 
lions of annual receipts and expenditures, but their 
enterprises are puny and insignificant beside the 
business of building Christian character that over¬ 
tops them all. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


93 


Third sign: The Church of Christ is charged with 
this business. There is a sense in which every insti¬ 
tution and every activity must be held responsible 
for its effect upon human character. The influence 
of the factory, the store, the playground, the work¬ 
shop, the school, and every other place where people 
work or play, has a marked share in the formation 
of character, and we have a right to demand that 
it be clean and wholesome. But, after all, the one 
institution to which, next to the home, we can look 
with hope to lead the way and be responsible for 
building character is the church. 

Fourth sign: The Methodist Episcopal Church has 
special responsibility. The fact that our church 
membership is one of the largest is not an item to 
be specially proud of, but to be solemn about. It 
merely indicates that our church has a larger meas¬ 
ure of responsibility. There are millions of peo¬ 
ple in America who, if they are ever to find reli¬ 
gion, will find it in the Methodist Church. 

Fifth sign: The period of youth offers the golden 
opportunity. It is true that it is the church’s busi¬ 
ness to attempt to build Christian character in 
every age group with which she deals, and a strong 
case can be made out for the importance of dealing 
with the Cradle Roll, and the younger boys and 
girls, and the parents of children, other adults, 
and the aged. Every one of these classes has its 
special claim; but among all the groups with which 
we deal there is one outstanding p’eriod that offers 
unique opportunity for character-building. That is 
the period which is technically known as “ado- 


94 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


lescence,” but which ordinary folks name youth. It 
is that period which stands between childhood and 
maturity, the growing-up age, the high and sacred 
adventure from childhood into manhood and woman¬ 
hood. It is that period from twelve to twenty-four, 
speaking in general terms, when the supreme deci¬ 
sions of life are made. It is the age when 68 per 
cent of all first crimes are committed, but on the 
other hand, is the age when 70 per cent of all con¬ 
versions occur, the age of decision for launching 
out upon useful life careers of every sort. For that 
reason it is the golden age of opportunity, and if 
the church is dead in earnest in its business of build¬ 
ing Christian character, she will concentrate chief 
attention upon this group of youth. To reach the 
three or four million youth in our Methodist ’ con¬ 
stituency is a gigantic and yet a thrilling task. 

Sixth sign: Character-building is largely a task 
one must perform, for himself . If character is to be 
builded in this group of youth, they must them¬ 
selves be chiefly responsible. This same fact is true 
in the educational field. While the teacher and the 
school and the books and the advice and help of 
others are very necessary, yet, after all, the supreme 
task in education must be done by the students 
themselves. 

An expert educator dropped in one day to observe 
the methods of a certain teacher in her schoolroom. 
He arrived in the midst of a recitation in algebra. 
A certain boy had been called upon to demonstrate 
a problem at the blackboard. Suddenly, in the 
midst of his demonstration, he became confused, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


95 


and did not know how to proceed. This expert edu¬ 
cator looked on with keenest interest to see what 
this teacher would do. Here was a real test as to 
her ability. What would you have done if you had 
been in her place? She proved to be a very wise 
teacher, and she did just the right thing in the judg¬ 
ment of this educator. She did absolutely nothing, 
but let the young fellow wrestle through it him¬ 
self. Instantly the entire room became all atten¬ 
tion. There was a very embarrassing silence. The 
poor boy wrestled and struggled and sweat, but she 
would not come to his rescue. At last after a couple 
of minutes, which seemed an interminable half 
hour, he saw his way through and continued his 
demonstration. “Those few moments/’ said this 
educator, “of struggle and sweat and embarrass¬ 
ment, when he wrestled and blundered through to a 
solution, had a value for him educationally that 
hours of ordinary instruction would not have had.” 
Had the teacher told him the- solution, he would 
have forgotten it forthwith, and would have been 
none the better for it. Having discovered it for 
himself, he would not only remember that lesson 
forever, but he had developed a new capacity to 
master his problems in the future. 

So with character building, there is much that 
others can do for us, in the way of counsel and 
advice, and instruction; but, after all, the chief re¬ 
sponsibility is our own. It is what we do for our¬ 
selves in working out our own salvation with fear 
and trembling that counts most largely. 

Seventh sign: Character building for youth is the 


96 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


special task of the Epworth League. This does not 
mean, of course, that the rest of the church is re¬ 
lieved of responsibility, but it means that the Ep¬ 
worth League, the official young people’s organiza¬ 
tion of the Methodist Church, is charged with and 
held chiefly responsible for leading the way in the 
church’s most important business, in its most 
promising field. As we have said, it is the ideal 
place for youth to do things for himself—to work 
out his own salvation. 

Eighth sign: The responsibility is lodged chiefly 
in the First Department. Of course every depart¬ 
ment of the Epworth League has its share in the 
task of character-building. The Fourth Depart¬ 
ment has its share, since every bit of fun, and every 
companionship, leaves its impress upon character. 
The Third Department participates, for no young 
man can have a part in a crusade for better citizen¬ 
ship, and no young woman can carry baskets of food 
to the poor, or visit the shut-ins or the aged, with¬ 
out being made the better for it. The Second De¬ 
partment is not without its influence in character 
formation, for it is impossible to study the great 
things that God is doing in his world, without feel¬ 
ing keenly his right to claim our lives in the con¬ 
secration of stewardship. 

But having said all this, the building of Chris¬ 
tian character is a First-Department job. It is 
here, by the employment of those great means of 
Bible Study and prayer and evangelism and the de¬ 
votional meeting, that mighty spiritual forces are 
tapped, and the energy of the Divine Spirit surges 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


97 


into the soul of youth to create Christlike char¬ 
acter. 

Now, like the auto tourist in summer, if you have 
followed these road signs (assuming them to be cor¬ 
rectly placed), and if you haven’t made too many 
detours, you have arrived at a realization of First- 
Department responsibility. It is not an accident 
that this department should have been called “first.” 
It is appropriately named. This business is first 
and is at the very heart of this great crusade for 
the life of youth. 

The first vice-president and his corps of workers 
have one of the biggest and most significant and 
needed jobs in the world to-day. It is their busi¬ 
ness to sow the seed in the best soil in which it can 
be sown. They do it in behalf of the First Depart¬ 
ment. The First Department is acting in behalf of 
the entire League. The Epworth League is serving 
in behalf of all Methodism for the whole group of 
youth, and it is being done for the sake of the 
world’s life! When these workers get enmeshed in 
details and wonder whether it is all worth the while, 
let them lift their eyes, and see this vision of the 
richness of their task, and be content. 

II. Tapping the Sources of Power for 
Character-Building 

We have said that in building character, youth 
must work out his own salvation with fear and 
trembling. The other half of Paul’s formula, how¬ 
ever, is equally essential: “For it is God who 
worketh in you both to will and to work, for his 


98 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


good pleasure.” Character is not built as a brick 
house is built, by mechanically following certain 
rules of construction: Character must be grown, 
somewhat after the fashion that a flower grows. 
The germ of life must be there to begin with. After 
that, the main problem is to so adjust that plant to 
the soil and the sunshine, that it may draw upon 
both earthly and heavenly resources for its growth. 
As it taps these sources of power and life, it blos¬ 
soms out into beauty. 

Christian character is the product of both earthly 
and heavenly effort. A major part of the earthly 
effort is in securing the right adjustment to the 
heavenly resources. Youth must do much for him¬ 
self and for his fellow youth. The climax of that 
service is in establishing such life habits of per¬ 
sonal and understanding relationship with a Divine 
Christ that out of such relationship there may flow 
steadily into his life the nourishment, the inspira¬ 
tion, the strength, the light that makes for true 
Christian manhood. 

With most young people the process has begun 
back in childhood in religious instruction. The 
modern world has come largely to the educational 
point of view with respect to religion. The con¬ 
viction is growing that religion can be taught, and 
the teaching process cannot be begun too early. 
Nothing is more normal or beautiful than that a 
child, instructed as to the facts about a good 
heavenly Father who cares tenderly even for little 
children, should come to love and trust him. Real 
teaching of religion is not merely an imparting of 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


99 


information, but is a vital process that must register 
in the life. 

How much of the teaching of childhood, however, 
falls short of this high quality! Teachers have too 
often been more interested in teaching a lesson than 
in teaching boys and girls. They have imparted 
information more or less true to fact,, sometimes 
more, sometimes less, but all too often they have 
failed to relate it vitally to life and experience. A 
young girl who had been brought up in a Christian 
home and in Sunday school, on making her first 
visit to an Epworth League Institute, said with a 
tone of delighted surprise, “I never realized before 
that religion is a part of daily living.” 

Her experience is all too common. Multitudes 
of children cross the threshold into youth, moder¬ 
ately well acquainted with the main facts about 
Bible characters and the life of Christ, but total 
strangers to a living and practical Christian experi¬ 
ence. It is not always the fault of parents and 
teachers. It may be that many are biding the time 
when they shall be mature enough to take what they 
have received by hearsay and make it theirs by their 
own individual appropriation. But the fact re¬ 
mains that until that step is taken their informa¬ 
tion may remain stuffed away in some pigeonhole of 
the mind and have little to do with the shaping of 
character. 

The great need of youth, therefore, in building 
character is to come into such vital and intimate re¬ 
lationship with Christ as to bring into daily em¬ 
ployment the knowledge they may have acquired 


100 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


concerning his will and his way of living. The 
religious instruction carried over from childhood 
into youth is often like the pile of kindling and fuel 
which has been laid in the fireplace, but has never 
been lighted. It is potentially useful, but it will be 
impotent to warm and cheer and light the room 
until somebody sets it ablaze. Coming into friend¬ 
ship with Christ is to introduce a fire from heaven 
that kindles the inflammable material already there, 
hitherto cold and inert and unutilized, but which 
when set ablaze, makes the life glow with warmth 
and power. Was it not just that which happened 
to John Wesley that May night in Aldersgate Street, 
which kindled our Methodist blaze that we pray 
God may never go out? 

1. It is just that service that is being rendered 
increasingly by the sane, wholesome, warm-hearted 
evangelistic program of the First Department. 
That word “evangelism” has been so often abused 
that with some its mere mention arouses prejudice 
and antagonism. Rightly understood it should be 
one of the most beautiful and glorious words in our 
language. It is God’s good news through Christ that 
he himself has entered into our human struggle for 
character, and brings limitless divine reenforcement 
to bear in the conflict. It is the good news that in 
Christ is to be found that inspiring vision of a per¬ 
fectly complete life that becomes at once our goal 
and our incentive in reaching it. It is the good 
news that through an intimate friendship with this 
Christ we may receive forgiveness and cleansing and 
deliverance from sin, and just the empowering that 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


101 


we need to attain to a completeness of living for 
ourselves. 

To introduce youth into a warm, first-hand Chris¬ 
tian experience of this sort is to render the great¬ 
est single aid that can be brought them in their 
fight for character. In an unusually successful 
Win-My-Chum campaign recently, a college girl gave 
some such testimony as this on the closing Sunday 
evening: “I was brought up in a Christian home, 
and joined the church as a child. I always at¬ 
tended the Sunday school, sang in the choir, and 
outwardly at least, was living a Christian life. But 
I knew, myself, that it was all a hollow mockery, 
and that I was merely ‘going through the motions/ 
My friends began to suspect as much, and doubted 
my sincerity. When this Win-My-Chum Campaign 
started I felt repelled by it and determined to avoid 
facing the issue. I dodged my friends as long as I 
could, but the further we went into the campaign, 
the more miserable I felt, and the more convicted of 
my hypocrisy. At last, on Friday night, I could 
stand it no longer. I felt that I simply must end 
the struggle and suspense and make my surrender; 
and, completely swallowing my pride, I came for¬ 
ward, seeking forgiveness and light. I did not get 
what I was seeking at the meeting, and went away 
disappointed. A very dear chum of mine went home 
to spend the night with me, and we talked till a 
late hour about the meaning of the Christian life. 
It was not until the next morning that the change 
came. When I awoke, it seemed I was living in a 
different world. I felt a glory and a joy in my heart 


102 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WOKK 


I had never known before. The whole outlook on 
life was transformed. I marveled at the fact that I 
had never realized before the true meaning of the 
friendship of Christ. My life can never be the same 
again. My friends may not see a great deal of differ¬ 
ence in my outward life, for I will probably go right 
on as I always have, singing in the choir, and teach¬ 
ing a Sunday-school class, and working in the 
League, but the great difference will be inside. It 
will no longer be a sham. There will be a peace in 
my heart and a joy in my work that I have never 
known. And it is all because I have come to be 
sure of the reality of Christ’s presence and power.” 

So simple and sincere and appealing was this col¬ 
lege girl’s testimony that more than seventy young 
people whose own heart need had been so accurately 
described came that night at the invitation to seek 
the same first-hand, lieart-quickening experience of 
the reality of Christ. 

That story illustrates many of the vital principles 
of young people’s evangelism—a young woman with 
much background of Christian training, but who 
had never come to a sense of personal appropria¬ 
tion of it—and hence living a life she did not sin¬ 
cerely feel, and could not have long maintained; 
won by a young people’s movement, and especially 
by the sympathetic counsel of a chum, to a personal 
religious experience; impelled to break forth into 
expression through testimony,’ once that great ex¬ 
perience had come into her life; enabled to make 
that testimony to scores of her friends who were 
having similar struggles and who being in the period 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


103 


of youth were plastic and impressionable, and far 
more susceptible to the appeal of one of their own 
v number than they could possibly be to that of one 
younger or older; and thus a whole group of young 
people helped to a new wholesomeness and genuine¬ 
ness of Christian character and life through a sig¬ 
nificant movement initiated and carried on by them¬ 
selves. 

2. The establishing of that vital relationship with 
Christ, while at the very center of the process of 
character-building, is but the beginning, and calls 
for the building of life habits whereby youth may 
continually draw upon these sources of power. This 
need is met in part by the cultivation of a life of 
private devotion. The Morning Watch has come to 
mean to thousands of Leaguers the spiritual power 
center of their lives. In one year, there were re¬ 
ported to the Central Office 6,750 new enrollments. 
Though the Morning-Watch pledge may have differ¬ 
ent meanings, and represent differences in detail of 
method, with different young people, yet if it means 
the establishment of that life habit of tapping the 
sources of spiritual power in their private lives, the 
significance of the movement is immeasurable. 
Bishop Vincent said: “I must compel myself every 
day to enter the invisible and blessed sanctuary of 
prayer. I must not allow business, social life, or 
recreation to prevent communion with God.” To 
encourage the youth of to-day to form that solemn 
purpose will have a bearing on the development of 
character that cannot be calculated. 

It is here too that the unique value of the League’s 


104 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


program of Bible study is to be found. The classes 
formed for the study of the Book do not in any 
wise compete with the systematic study pursued in 
the Sunday school. It is, rather, a means of so 
opening their eyes to the “wondrous things in the 
law,” and so creating a taste for it, that Leaguers 
may be led to a regular habit of Bible study in their 
own devotions. 

Mark Guy Pearse once said that for daily devo¬ 
tion one should never attempt to read more than 
five or six verses. He should then devote some time 
to thinking about the passage read, picturing to his 
mind the scene and the conditions that called forth 
the utterance. He illustrated his meaning by read¬ 
ing six verses from the fourth chapter of the Gospel 
of John. Then he sketched the picture—the dusty 
highway, the hot sun, and the weary, thirsty 
traveler waiting at the well. He said, “You will 
say to yourself, ‘My Master, how gladly would I 
have given you a drink!’ Then the Spirit will bring 
to your remembrance that a cup of cold water given 
to a disciple is also given to the Lord, and as you 
go about your daily work you will not forget, 
through deeds of thoughtfulness for others, to give 
the Master a drink.” 

What if every youth in the church to-day could 
be brought to make practical use, day after day, 
habitually, of the counsel, inspiration, guidance, 
and power to be found there, not merely reading 
snatches in formal fashion, but incorporating them 
and translating them, by earnest meditation and 
prayer, into the warp and woof of their lives! Does 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


105 


anyone imagine such a generation could come to 
manhood and womanhood without bearing plain evi¬ 
dence of such a custom, in increased fruitfulness of 
life? 

3. An indispensable part of the process of culti¬ 
vating the devotional life is the expression of it. 
If a current of electricity is to enter a body at all, 
it must flow through it. If the outflow is stopped, 
there will be no inflow. It is no less true of the 
great currents of divine power. While each of the 
other departments provides channels of expression, 
there are certain opportunities to be classified under 
the First Department that have high.value in the 
formation of character. Chief among these is the 
devotional meeting. What an impressive spectacle! 
Scores of thousands of young people, gathering to¬ 
gether at the same hour, in all parts of the world, 
under their own direction and leadership, to give 
expression to their own religious life, in song, 
prayer, testimony, and Christian fellowship! This 
surely is the League’s most characteristic and valu¬ 
able single achievement. 

So much has been written on this subject, how¬ 
ever, and is being written week by week, that only 
the briefest and most general comments would be in 
order here. 

What is a devotional meeting for? What is it 
intended to accomplish? What ideals should be 
striven after? What definite objectives should 
always be kept in mind, by the First-Department 
workers and by the leader himself? If such ques¬ 
tions as these could be more often thoughtfully 


106 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


asked, pretty accurate diagnosis of devotional meet¬ 
ing ills could be made, and remedies prescribed. 
And since prevention is vastly better than cure, the 
asking of such questions beforehand would doubt¬ 
less insure such a sound state of health on the part 
of the patient that all thought of ills and remedies 
W’ould be permanently banished from the mind, as 
is normal with every healthy creature. 

Here are some suggested answers to these ques¬ 
tions. You can perhaps add more to the list. 

(1) It should be truly a devotional meeting, a 
decided stimulus and a fostering of the devotional 
life of the members. It should be winningly spir¬ 
itual. It should inspire a consciousness of the pres¬ 
ence of Christ, and a sense of the reality of spir¬ 
itual things, such as always deepen Christian ex¬ 
perience. 

(2) It should afford the largest possible oppor¬ 

tunity for self-expression. The late Doctor Jowett 
has finely said: 1 “Goodness expressed is goodness 
confirmed. . . . Feelings that never find utter¬ 

ance may die of slow suffocation. To confess a 
sentiment is to strengthen it. To hide a sentiment 
may be to lose it. . . . Our experiences become 
more precious as we share them with our fellows. 
. . . We have little of the testimony meeting. 

We have little of the ‘speaking to one another’ of 
the Lord’s dealings in personal life. I am persuaded 
that we are great losers by the abstinence.” The 
devotional meeting that is enriched by Christian 


1 Jowett: Thirsting tor the Springs , p. 10. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


107 


testimony and expression is bound to be a good 
meeting for those who take part. Did you ever note 
that the meetings in which you participate are 
almost invariably the “best” meetings? It is true 
for you, and such a meeting is very likely to be so 
to others. 

(3) It should develop initiative in leadership. A 
perfect mine of undeveloped personality is con¬ 
fronted by every devotional meeting leader. Wise 
and tactful enlistment of the inexperienced to assist 
in the service even in minor ways is not only an 
obligation due to them but is the best possible in¬ 
vestment in the future leadership of the League. 

(4) It should provide thoughtful instruction in 
the meaning of Christian truth and its application 
to everyday life. An opportunity even greater than 
the preacher’s is here, for it is youth speaking to 
youth. The employment of a copious quantity of 
real “brain sweat” is the price that must be paid, 
however, if this ideal is to be regularly reached. 

(5) It should promote the highest type of Chris¬ 
tian fclloivship. To make the devotional meeting a 
place of warm and sincerely human fellowship right 
in the midst of a Christian atmosphere, with a sense 
of the presence of that other One never lost, is to 
set the level on which all the fellowships of the 
chapter may be lived. 

(6) It should always so exalt the Christ in song, 
prayer, testimony, and leader’s talk, as to make a 
constant appeal to the unconverted. To bring youth 
into a living relationship with him is an objective 
never to be lost sight of. It is the greatest service 


108 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WOKK 


we can render. It is the climax of all our effort at 
character-building. 

4. Still another characteristic First-Department 
activity is the Junior League. This organization is 
rightly classified under the First Department for 
several reasons. 

(1) It offers a rich field of expressional activity 
for the Seniors. Every young person, for his own 
good, needs the contact of younger children, to de¬ 
velop in him the qualities of chivalry, kindness, un¬ 
selfishness, and thoughtful consideration. 

(2) It is an immensely profitable investment on 
the part of the Senior chapter, from the standpoint 
of future success in the task of character-building. 
It lays the foundations well, and should greatly 
facilitate the erection of the superstructure when 
this crowd becomes Seniors. 

(3) The chief motive behind the Junior League is 
not its promotion for the sake of the Senior chapter, 
however, but for the sake of the boys and girls them¬ 
selves. “Saving America through her boys and 
girls” is more than a slogan. It is a great Christian 
challenge and a divine commission. The Junior 
League is peculiarly fitted to supplement the Sun¬ 
day school in meeting this challenge. A certain 
Methodist lover of boys and girls, anxious to do 
her best by them, yet fearing that our Methodist 
offerings would not be quite good enough, wrote to 
the Y. W. C. A. headquarters without disclosing her 
denominational connections, and asked for advice 
as to the best materials for religious work among 
this age group. She was taken somewhat aback to 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


109 


receive the reply that positively the best materials 
and program they knew of for boys and girls was 
that prepared for the Junior League of the Meth¬ 
odist Episcopal Church. 

In view of this admirable program of character- 
building and church membership training, which the 
Junior League presents, the surprising thing is that 
in spite of a gain in a single recent year of 13 per 
cent, there should be still so few Junior chapters in 
comparison with Senior chapters. Perhaps it is an 
unwitting First-Department oversight. Here is a 
challenge to some First-Department workers to take 
the Junior Methods courses at the Institutes, and 
come home fired with the determination to put the 
Junior League on the map. 

5. A somewhat new development that has great 
possibility is the Gospel Team. Some chapters are 
richer in numbers and talent than others, or have 
advanced further in spiritual life and experience. 
Our League motto that we are to do what we can 
to “help others attain” this New-Testament stand¬ 
ard can scarcely be conceived as canceling our 
obligation when we reach the boundaries of our 
League parish. What about our obligation to that 
chapter that is less favorably situated than our own, 
and is having to fight for its life? And even if it 
is alive and thriving, an exchange of experiences 
would be mutually profitable. 

The Gospel Team carries the League motto into 
application in neighboring chapters. For some 
years, the Salem (Oregon) League chapters have 
joined together in a Gospel-Team movement that is 


110 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


proving unusually fruitful. (See page 129.) Dur¬ 
ing one year they sent out sixteen teams, averaging 
five Leaguers each, to League chapters within a 
radius of fifty miles. Most enthusiastic reports 
have come in from their work. While bare statistics 
do not tell the whole story, the story they tell is 
worth hearing: sixteen conversions, sixty-two con¬ 
secrations, one life decision—all secured during that 
one year. One layman from a neighboring town re¬ 
ported that while their church had imported an 
evangelist that year, for a revival meeting, the one 
thing that had done more genuine and permanent 
good to their young people than their revival meet¬ 
ings, or any other single thing was the visit of the 
Gospel Team. 

One fine college girl gave a striking! testimony in 
our Win-My-Chum Campaign that she had been 
saved from careless worldliness, to the Christian 
life, and was in college at that moment solely be¬ 
cause of the coming to her town of the Gospel Team. 
Similar testimonies could be supplied indefinitely. 

Here is a great possibility for exchange of help¬ 
fulness among chapters that is just in its infancy. 
Not least in its value is the fine training and experi¬ 
ence that comes to members of these teams them¬ 
selves. It is often a means of completely revolution¬ 
izing their Christian attitude and outlook. 

6. No discussion of First-Department activities 
would be complete without reference to vocational 
instruction and life work enlistments . This sub¬ 
ject has already received some attention (pages 25-27, 
40-44) but should be brought to mind again because 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


m 


of its relation to the problem of character-building. 
The burning questidn with every youth on the 
threshold of maturity is the choice of his life-work. 
It is the logical time for the choice to be made, and 
his decision is one of those significant permanent 
choices that will affect almost every other choice he 
will ever make the rest of his life. No wonder he is 
in need of wise guidance that no mistake be made. 

There is, of course, certain direct help which the 
League may give. There is information to be sup¬ 
plied concerning the religious vocations, and the 
vocations that can be the expression of the religious 
motive. There is the sympathetic counsel of friends 
who might give unbiased judgments as to one’s 
native capacities and aptitudes. There is the sup¬ 
ply of proper reading material that would suggest 
the general principles on which a choice should be 
based. There is especially the Institute contri¬ 
bution, in which the whole field of Kingdom activity 
is presented and an atmosphere created that would 
assist young people in making decisions based on 
highest considerations. 

But, after all, the chief help which the League 
gives in life-work enlistments is indirect. It is to 
be found in the development of character. The 
major element of success in any vocation is char¬ 
acter, and this is doubly true with the so-called 
Christian vocations. It was the great Horace 
Bushnell who contended that every man’s life is a 
plan of God. He further said, “Does it ever seem 
to you impossible that you ever find your way into 
a path prepared for you by God, and be led along 


112 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


it bv his mighty counsel? Let me tell you a secret. 
It requires a very close, well-kept life to do this.” 

Henry Drummond has expressed the same 
thought: “It requires a well-kept life to know the 
will of God, and none but the Christlike in char¬ 
acter can know the Christlike in career.” 

It is the great Christlike careers that have made 
the church, and have advanced the Kingdom 
through the centuries. It is more Christlike careers 
that are imperative for further Kingdom advance. 
And it is these same great careers that fire the 
imagination and ambition of young people as they 
dream of life plans and debate their life choices. 

What they need to see is that back of every such 
Christlike career is a Christlike character. It has 
been the pure in heart who have seen God, and have 
caught the vision of great careers. It has been well- 
kept, well-ordered, willingly obedient lives that have 
been led into the paths of God. And if the church 
is not to be lacking in those great Christlike careers 
in the future that have been her main dependence in 
the past, there must not be lacking now among her 
youth those mighty influences of God that alone can 
be trusted to produce the Christlike in character. 

III. The First Vice President. 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 


1. His Task. 

The first part of this chapter summarized the task 




FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


113 


as that of building Christian character in youth. 
A certain well-known book— Twice Born Men — 
points out the fact that there is a power by which 
men who are radically bad may become radically 
good. The First Department is commissioned to 
employ this power. Cooperating with the church, 
the school, and every other good institution, it is 
the League’s task and privilege to make youth over 
from what they are to what they ought to be. This 
is to be accomplished primarily by the tapping of 
the great sources of spiritual power, and hence is 
a First-Department responsibility. 

2. His Tools. 

(1) The Practice of Devotion, by Dan B. Brum- 
mitt. 

(2) Literature from the Central Office on Morn¬ 
ing Watch, Win-My-Chum, Bible study, 
Junior League, Life Work, Epworth Herald, 
Epworth League Quarterly, etc. 

(3) Training the Devotional Life, by Kennedy 
and Meyer. 

(4) List of the Official Bible Study Textbooks 
issued by the Central Office. 

(5) Books on prayer, evangelism, etc. 

(6) Above all, of course, The Bible. 

3. His Methods. 

(1) Method of organizing the work of the depart¬ 
ment. 

A. For a small League —The First-Depart¬ 
ment committee will face the total 


114 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


task of the department, and allot the 

work as may seem best. 

B. For a larger League — 

(A) A committee on Weekly Devotional 
Meetings. (See pages 105-108.) 

(B) A committee on spiritual welfare 
of members including Bible Study 
and Morning Watch. 

(C) A Committee on Evangelism, 
charged with responsibility for study 
classes, personal work, Win-My- 
Chum campaign, Gospel Teams, etc. 

(D) A Committee on Junior League and 
Life Work. (See pages 110-113.) 
Other committees can be named as 
needed. 

(2) Methods for a Win-My-Chum Campaign. 

(For Committee on Evangelism.) 

A. Setting up the Campaign. 

(A) Get democratic indorsement from 
Cabinet and League. This is essen¬ 
tially a program put on by Leaguers 
themselves. 

(B) Get literature from the Central 
Office including their pamphlet of 
organization, and follow it. While 
the spirit means much, details dare 
not be neglected. 

(C) Form your Council as suggested. If 
you have an Intermediate chapter, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


1E> 

give them the same representation as 
the Senior chapter, and make them 
feel that they are a part of it. 

(D) Get your director appointed and 
your committees at work at least 
six or seven weeks before the “week 
of meetings.” This is a campaign, 
and not merely a Win-My Chum 
“Week.” We have found that at 
least three committees are essential: 
Program, Publicity, and Resources. 

B. Suggestions for Class in Evangelism. 

(A) Time and Place. “The Class is the 
Campaign.” It should run at 
least from four to six weeks. For a 
number of years our plan has been 
to have the class taught by the pas¬ 
tor. Meetings are held at the par¬ 
sonage from 5 to 6 o’clock on Sun¬ 
day evenings. A very light lunch is 
then served, such as apples and 
doughnuts, or cocoa and sand¬ 
wiches, and then the class goes 
directly to the League service. Some 
Leagues have boys and girls meet 
separately through the week for this 
study, or at church night service. 

(B) Method of selecting members. It 
may be either selective or volunteer 
—preferably both. Give League 
members a chance to volunteer. In 


116 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


the meantime have the cabinet go 
over the lists, select the influential 
young people who should be in the 
class and if they have not volun¬ 
teered, quietly “draft” them. 

(C) Course of study to be followed . The 
following books have been used and 
found practical: The Win-My- 
Chum Campaign, by Burgwin; 
Epworth League Evangelism, by 
Stone; Taking Men Alive, by Trum¬ 
bull; What it Means to be a Chris¬ 
tian, by Bosworth; The Human Ele¬ 
ment in the Making of a Christian, 
by Bertha Conde; Introducing 
Men to Christ, by Weatherford; 
Enlisting for Christ and the Church, 
by Johnston. 

The leader should not do all the 
talking. It is much more effective 
to make it largely a discussion 
group. One of the most successful 
classes we have had followed an out¬ 
line of discussions something like 
this: 

First study—“Why win our friends 
to Jesus Christ?” 

Second study—“To what are we to 
win them? That is, Just what does 
it mean to be a Christian?” 

Third study—“What are the quali¬ 
fications of a soul-winner?” 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


117 


Fourth study—“What should be the 
method and spirit of approach in 
trying to win folks to Christ? Just 
what would it take to win you if 
you were not a Christian ?” 

Fifth study—“Problems of Life 
Work. How should one go about 
it to make the right decision as to 
lifework ?” 

(D) The point of view to be stressed in 
the class and in personal work. 
Avoid as you would poison the 
“holier-than-thou” attitude. The 
whole movement will be misunder¬ 
stood and defeated by such a spirit. 
Rather let it be made clear that 
everybody, including pastor and 
Cabinet, are alike humbly seeking 
higher levels of Christian thinking 
and living, and that all are joining 
in a sympathetic comradeship to 
help one another. Such an attitude 
will give immediate approach, and 
completely disarm all resentment. 
The class itself should result in 
leading every member in it to square 
up his own life with the demands 
of Christ in new and advanced con¬ 
secration. 

(E) Chum groups and personal work. 
The class study should be accom¬ 
panied by work in the laboratory. 


118 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


Actual personal work should be en¬ 
couraged by the formation of chum 
groups with a leader of each group. 
Lists of “prospects” should be avail¬ 
able from the work of the Resource 
Committee. 

C. The ivork of the Committees . 

(A) The Program Committee. Respon¬ 
sible for working out details of the 
“week of meetings,” selecting and 
coaching leaders. Depend on your 
own League members rather than 
on the pastor or an outside speaker 
for leaders. Give them at least three 
weeks to get ready. Have leaders 
for entire week meet together with 
committee several times, and work 
details out together as to topics, 
method of developing topics, variety 
in opening and closing of meeting, 
variety for prayer period, special 
music appropriate to theme. Spend 
much time together in prayer. De¬ 
cide when and how invitations shall 
be given, etc. 

(B) The Resource Committee is respon¬ 
sible for careful study of the field 
of responsibility of the chapter, and 
the preparation of complete lists of 
prospects both for League member¬ 
ship and for the Christian life. 




FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


119 


These lists should be prepared early 
for use of the chum groups. 

(C) Publicity Committee. Responsible 
for putting the Win-My-Chum Cam¬ 
paign irresistibly into the thinking 
of the entire church for weeks. Use 
of posters, newspapers, bulletin 
boards, and especially minute men 
for Sunday School and church serv¬ 
ices. 

D. The Climax of Campaign (Week of 
Meetings). 

(A) Steep whole week in prayer. Have 
program committee and Cabinet and 
leaders meet for prayer before each 
service. Chum groups may well 
meet daily for prayer, reports, and 
further plans. 

(B) From experience of many Leagues, 
it seems best not to make call every 
night, but let spirit deepen until 
near close of week. Our experience 
has been that it is best to give in¬ 
vitation only on Friday and Sunday 
evenings. 

(C) Use a Gospel Team for the closing 
service. While general plans for 
team should be made considerably 
in advance, leave place on team for 
those who may have had striking 
experience during the week, and 


120 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


whose fresh testimony will make 
most effective appeal. 

(D) In the final call, the invitations 
should be perfectly clear cut, defi¬ 
nite, and straight from the shoulder. 
A wide enough range of invitation 
should be given to meet the need of 
every person present who should 
take a distinct forward step of some 
kind, in squaring up their lives with 
the demand of Christ. If many re¬ 
spond, a good plan is to use those 
who may be preparing for Christian 
service, or at least the more mature 
Christians and pair them off with 
those newly deciding, that they may 
counsel and pray together until defi¬ 
nite and satisfactory results are 
attained. 

E. The follow-up. Put new converts to 
work. Help build them into the church. 
Organize gospel teams. Continue work 
on the prospect lists. Help the church to 
catch the Win-My-Chum spirit. Link 
the campaign up with the whole year’s 
program. 

Finally —the Win-My-Chum idea has taken 
the church by storm. Greater reports 
are coming in every year. It is one of 
the greatest potential methods of evan¬ 
gelism found in the church. Help to 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


121 


make it a still greater force in our cru¬ 
sade for the youth of to-day. These 
plans are not mere theories. They have 
been wrought out in experience and they 
work. Try them! 

(3) Methods of training the devotional life. 

(For the Committee on Spiritual Welfare of Mem¬ 
bers.) 

A. Comrades of the Morning Watch. 

(A) Get the Central Office pamphlet on 
the Morning Watch Hour , together 
with enrollment cards for the 
“Morning Watch.” 

(B) Make much of the first meeting in 
January as a time to stress the devo¬ 
tional life, but do not stop with 
that. Keep it before them again 
and again, making suggestions as 
to how to keep the Morning Watch, 
and calling for testimonies as to its 
value. 

(C) An occasional meeting of the Com¬ 
rades of the Morning Watch, to dis¬ 
cuss common problems and to 
encourage one another would be 
helpful. 

(D) Make the Morning Watch appear to 
be what it really is—a most prac¬ 
tical necessity in the development of 
Christian character. Make it a 
means of harnessing the prayer 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


power to the practical problems of 
every day. Action is natural to 
youth. So is prayer. We must 
hitch the two up together. If daily 
prayer and daily study of the Scrip¬ 
tures are harnessed up to daily ac¬ 
tion, it will be a great gain. Some 
people pray only on occasion—a 
wreck, a storm, a death. They “live 
skim milk and try to pray cream,” 
a thing which Henry Ward Beecher 
declared was impossible. The Morn¬ 
ing Watch connects daily devotion 
with daily living. 

B. The habit of systematic and devotional 
study of the Bible. 

A certain religious magazine runs a 
department called “Gold-mining in the 
Scriptures.” The phrase is suggestive, 
and may point the way toward an ap¬ 
propriation of the treasures to be found 
in The Book for young people. 

(A) Help young people to appreciate 
the values that are to be found there. 
Gold is the standard of value, the 
basis of our currency system, and 
while other kinds of money fluc¬ 
tuate, the value of gold remains 
fixed. So the great principles and 
ideals to be found in the Scriptures 
form the permanent and unfluctuat- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


123 


ing standard of values, the basis of 
the coinage of the moral and spir¬ 
itual realm. It is the duty of the 
First Department to get this idea 
into the thinking of Leaguers. When 
gold is really discovered there is no 
difficulty in bringing about a rush 
in that direction. 

(B) The gold of Scriptures must he 
mined before it can come into our 
possession. The gulch that now 
forms one of the principal streets 
in Helena, Montana, lay there for 
millions of years, probably, and the 
wild beasts and the savages roamed 
over it, unsuspecting the hidden 
wealth underneath. It was not 
until its value was discovered, and 
men feverishly expended vast quanti¬ 
ties of effort and sweat and energy 
in mining it that the gulch pro¬ 
duced millions of dollars in gold. 
Even so, the gold in the Scriptures 
must be diligently mined. It is hid¬ 
den and secluded behind figures of 
speech, and the phraseology and his¬ 
torical conditions of another day. 
But the nuggets are there, and they 
cannot become our own possession 
until we put forth our own energy 
to possess them. The shame of it is 
that we expend ourselves so little 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


to come into this mine of gold. To 
establish a daily habit of Bible 
Study is to render a signal service 
to young people. A six-weeks’ study 
class in some authorized League 
textbook should open up a whole 
mine of Scripture Gold for the en¬ 
richment of life. 

(C) This Gold of Scripture is the rate 
material that must he passed 
through the mint of our own in¬ 
tellectual and moral and spiritual 
life, and molded into the definite 
coinage that will pass as currency 
in our own lives. The gold ore must 
be refined and actually coined be¬ 
fore it performs its mission for us. 
It is necessary to take these great 
truths and inquire diligently just 
what their meaning would be as 
applied concretely to our own situa¬ 
tion. To translate them into life, 
and to experience them for them¬ 
selves, is the great need of youth 
in Bible Study. A wise leader, con¬ 
ducting a practical discussion with¬ 
in the group, inviting testimony as 
to what a given truth has actually 
meant in experience, may greatly 
help to pass this ore through the 
mint, and transform it into the 
coinage of character. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


125 


(D) The motive of all this mining and 
minting of the gold of Scripture is 
that at the last it may he put into 
circulation to increase the wealth 
and life of the world . “Every scrip¬ 
ture, inspired of God, is also profit¬ 
able,” says Paul—a great mine of 
value; “for teaching, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness”—to be minted into 
the coinage of character; “that the 
man of God may be complete, fur¬ 
nished completely for every good 
work”—the end and aim of it all, 
that it may be put into circulation 
for the enrichment of others’ lives, 
that we may be enabled to perform 
the work God has for us to do, in the 
making of a better world. 

If the real wealth of your com¬ 
munity is personality, there are few 
more effective ways in which a 
League Chapter may enhance that 
wealth than by training every 
Leaguer to be a practical and skill¬ 
ful miner of Scriptural gold. 

(4) The Gospel Team. 

(For Committee on Evangelism.) 

A. Organizing the team. 

(A) Have a special Committee on Gos- 


126 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WOKK 


pel Team Work, or hold some mem¬ 
ber responsible. 

(B) Make careful selection of those most 
fitted by Christian life and experi¬ 
ence to serve. Volunteers may be 
called for. The leader should be a 
good judge of character, however, 
and should be able to develop those 
who are least qualified at the begin¬ 
ning. While some good leader 
should be in charge of the team, a 
judicious use of inexperienced but 
earnest beginners will be profitable. 
It will develop new material, and 
often they may prove to have unex¬ 
pectedly effective testimonies. 

(C) Coach your team members as much 
as possible. Before taking charge 
of a service, meet with the team for 
prayer and planning. Have a clear 
understanding with each member as 
to his part. If possible, have each 
member give his testimony before 
the team, to make sure of its appro¬ 
priateness, and for the inspiration 
of the team. Make it clear that the 
purpose is not to give a sermonette 
but a perfectly simple and genuine 
testimony of experience. We are to 
be His witnesses. There cannot be 
any more effective preaching than 
that. 




FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


127 


B. Conducting a service. 

Have one member in charge. While 
such a meeting should have some room 
for spontaneity, it should be well 
planned as to detail beforehand. Open¬ 
ing service, prayer, Scripture, special 
music should be intensely spiritual and 
an effective preparation for the testi¬ 
monies. Do not have too many 
speakers, and be sure that no one of 
them will spoil the service either by too 
long a speech, or by saying things out 
of harmony with the purpose of the 
meeting. See to that in jour prelimi¬ 
nary meeting with the team. Arrange 
the talks in climactic order, with your 
leader or strongest speaker last, to give 
his testimony and present the invita¬ 
tion. If no one on the team feels cap¬ 
able of that, the meeting may be turned 
over to the pastor at this point. Some 
of the most effective services I have 
seen, however, have been carried 
through entirely by the team itself. No 
set rule can be given as to the call. It 
should not be too greatly prolonged, but 
should be a simple, straight-from-the- 
shoulder appeal to accept Christ, or to 
renew consecration to him. 

C. Work with neighboring Leagues and 
churches. 


128 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Some of the richest results of gospel 
team work come from visits to neighbor¬ 
ing Leagues and churches. Have the 
committee or captain in charge learn by 
correspondence or personal interview as 
much as possible about the community 
to be visited, that the entire plan may 
be laid accordingly. Insist upon cer¬ 
tain preliminary preparations being 
made, such as adequate publicity, forma¬ 
tion of prayer groups, listing of pros¬ 
pects who might be reached through per¬ 
sonal work, arranging the church 
schedule so as to give right of way so 
far as possible to the team, etc. Effort 
to follow up the visit by reaping full 
benefit from the results, taking care of 
new converts, harnessing the new en¬ 
thusiasm to the local program of League 
and church, will make the good more 
lasting. 

D. Some Gospel Team experiences. 

(A) One district reports effective work 
done by sending out the Cabinet as 
a Gospel Team over the district. 

(B) Some districts finance the Gospel- 
Team work as a part of their promo¬ 
tion program, while in other places 
the teams pay their own expenses. 
Often the church visited takes an 
offering to pay the expense. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


129 


(C) One Epworthian writes: “A boy 
came to town from the timber coun¬ 
try, and was invited to League. 
Crowded house. Lively music— 
warm prayers captivated him. He 
said, ‘This is what I have been 
hungry for.’ When interviewed by 
a young man on the campus, he 
said, ‘Yes, I’ll be a Christian!’ Pas¬ 
tor’s interview settled the matter. 
Baptized and united with church. 
One of best workers during whole 
college course. Went out to carry 
splendid message to backwoods peo¬ 
ple of his home neighborhood.” 

(D) Gospel Teams may have variety of 
uses in the local church. “Have 
them take charge of closing serv¬ 
ice of Win-My-Chum Campaign.” 
“Conduct a Sunday-evening service 
or a young people’s rally now and 
then.” “Use a Gospel Team for the 
Echo Meeting after Institute.” 

(E) The Salem (Oregon) Plan: Gospel 
Team Council, consisting of repre¬ 
sentatives from three Methodist 
churches, Kimball School of 
Theology, and Willamette Uni¬ 
versity Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. 
This Council meets annually and 
elects an Executive Committee 
which arranges for trips, selects 


130 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


teams, promotes publicity, etc. 
Lists of volunteers from various 
organizations are secured. Out of a 
total of about seventy-five volun¬ 
teers about forty-three were used in 
one year. No permanent teams 
were chosen but a special team is 
picked for each particular trip. 
These teams often consist of both 
high-school and college students. 
When a team is selected, the leader 
meets them from one to five times 
for developing topics and for in¬ 
spiration of the team. Sometimes a 
central thought is suggested around 
which all the testimonies are 
grouped. Sometimes each is given 
full liberty to work out his own 
testimony. The Executive Com¬ 
mittee arranges dates, and seeks 
to have as much preliminary 
work done as possible in prepara¬ 
tion. Sometimes they go for a week¬ 
end, holding a live social on Satur¬ 
day night and getting acquainted. 
Sometimes even an athletic event is 
held, or a banquet. Usually, how¬ 
ever, the program is confined to 
Sunday—Sunday school, morning 
worship, afternoon personal work, 
League, and evening service. 
Usually the leader has charge of the 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


131 


invitation. One collection during 
the day is taken to pay expenses of 
the team. 

The churches visited gain a new 
ideal of normal, virile Christianity 
possible among youth. The teams 
serving come back with new en¬ 
thusiasm and a sense of respon¬ 
sibility that lasts. 


CHAPTER IV 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 

Introduction: Roger Babson’s statement as to the 
importance of the human soul and the great spir¬ 
itual forces. 

I. The Importance of Character-Building as a First- 

Department Responsibility. 

The eight signs that point to this responsibility: 

First sign: The greatest need in the world of 
our day is Christian character. 

Second sign: The greatest business is the build¬ 
ing of Christian character. 

Third sign: The Church of Christ is charged 
with this business. 

Fourth sign: The Methodist Episcopal Church 
has special responsibility. 

Fifth sign: The period of youth offers the 
golden opportunity. 


132 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


Sixth sign: Character-building is largely a task 
one must perform for himself. 

Seventh sign: Character-building for youth is 
the special task of the Epworth League. 
Eighth sign: The responsibility is lodged chiefly 
in the First Department. 

II. Tapping the Sources of Power for Character- 
Building. 

The building of character in youth is largely a 
task of establishing those life habits by which 
youth may tap the great resources of power 
that make character. 

1. The evangelistic program introduces youth 
to a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. 

2. The cultivating of a life of private devo¬ 
tion establishes habitual contact with the 
sources of power. 

3. The devotional meeting both cultivates 
and gives expression to the life of devotion. 
It should be: 

(1) Truly devotional. 

(2) Provide self expression. 

(3) Train for initiative in leadership. 

(4) Provide thoughtful instruction. 

(5) Promote high type of Christian fel¬ 
lowship. 

(6) Make constant appeal to the uncon¬ 
verted. 

4. The Junior League. 

(1) Offers opportunity for training our 
laymen of to-morrow. 


FOR YOUXG PEOPLE 


133 


(2) Lays foundations for future Senior 
League. 

(3) Provides splendid church member¬ 
ship and character training for boys 
and girls. 

5. The Gospel Team carries aid to other chap¬ 
ters in character-building. 

6. Vocational guidance and enlistment in life- 
work is the legitimate fruit of character¬ 
building, for only the Christlike in char¬ 
acter can know the Christlike in career., 

III. The First Vice-President. 

1. His Task, discussed in first part of chapter. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 

(1) For organization of the department. 

(2) For a Win-My-Chum Campaign. 

A. Setting up the campaign. 

B. The class in evangelism. 

C. The work of the committees. 

D. The climax of the campaign—the 
week of meetings. 

E. The follow-up. 

(3) Methods of training the devotional life. 

A. Comrades of the Morning Watch. 

B. Systematic and devotional study of 
the Bible. 

(4) The Gospel Team. 

A. Organizing the team. 


134 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


B. Conducting the service. 

C. Work with neighboring Leagues and 

churches. 

D. Some Gospel-Team experiences. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. Is the statement justified that the greatest need 
in the world is the need for Christian character ? Is 
there any greater disaster than the loss and break¬ 
down of character? What evidence can you gather 
from your own acquaintance, from your own com¬ 
munity, from a study of current events and of public 
men, from literature, from the Bible, etc. ? To 
vividly realize the truth of this proposition is to 
create mighty conviction concerning First-Depart¬ 
ment work. 

2. Discuss reasons why youth is the golden period 
for the development of character. 

3. What should be the relative place and impor¬ 
tance of what others do for young people, and what 
young people do for themselves, in the development 
of character? Do you think the point of view of 
the Epworth League is justified, that the important 
thing is to give young people a chance to “work out 
their own salvation”? Is your League doing that, 
or is it in the hands of older people who are carry¬ 
ing on the work “for young people,” in a sort of 
paternal spirit? 

4. Discuss the relationship between the human 
effort necessary in building character, and the divine 
power which should be utilized. From your obser- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


135 


vation of young people, which of these is more likely 
to be neglected? 

5. What phase of First-Department activity in 
your chapter has best succeeded in helping the Lea¬ 
guers to “tap these sources of divine power”? Do 
you think that your chapter is laying sufficient 
emphasis here? How can you improve the situa¬ 
tion? 

6. When young people are troubled with so-called 
“intellectual doubts,” which method do you think is 
wiser: to solve their intellectual problems first in 
order that their spiritual life and character may be 
given their chance, or to stress a spiritual life and 
experience first, as a means to clearing up their 
doubts ? 

7. What would you consider the most essential 
qualification for a first vice-president? 

8. Among the methods of the first vice-president, 
which of those discussed in the text are most needed 
in your chapter? Concentrate your thoughts on 
your chapter’s weakest spot, and discuss ways and 
means of improvement. 


136 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


CHAPTER V 

THE SECOND DEPARTMENT: THE TASK OF 
WINNING A WORLD 

When, a few years ago, the young people of the 
Christian Endeavor and the Epworth League set 
going the slogan “A Saloonless Nation by Nineteen 
Twenty,” it struck the popular ear with surprise 
and incredulity. Many of us still remember what 
scorn and ridicule it evoked from many quarters. 
There were millions of people in this country who 
were violently opposed to its realization and were 
ready to fight it to the last ditch. There were mil¬ 
lions more who were utterly unconcerned, and 
hardly knew there was a battle on. There were yet 
other millions who eagerly desired to see the slogan 
fulfilled, but considered it a youthful dream that 
was utterly beyond the reach of possibility. 

But in the meantime, in young people’s societies, 
in Sunday school, and church, and schoolroom, this 
idea was burned into the impressionable minds of 
youth until it was written there in letters of fire. 
The years slipped away, and millions of them 
crossed that mystic line of twenty-one and became 
voters. They voiced their conviction through the 
ballot, and to the amazement not only of the rest 
of the world, but of a good many people in America, 
the fulfillment came several months ahead of 
schedule. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


137 


Having seen one such prophecy brought to fulfill¬ 
ment right before our very eyes, we are inclined to 
treat with increased respect any other slogan that 
may be initiated by that crowd. What if they have 
a more prophetic vision, and a more sensitive aware¬ 
ness of the direction of progress than some other 
folks! And what if the continual sounding of a 
slogan before plastic youth becomes a mighty means 
for its own realization! The world may well study 
the watchwords and battle cries of youth, if they 
would become prophets of the happenings of to¬ 
morrow. 

There is another great slogan that has been 
initiated by the youth of the church, and has been 
sounded over and over. Like the other slogan, it 
has seemed to many a wild and impossible dream, 
but it is worthy of study. And that is “The World 
for Christ in This Generation.” Here, again, many 
millions are violently opposed to it. It would too 
seriously interfere with their morals and manners, 
and turn upside down their way of living. And, 
again, there are those who have never heard of the 
slogan, and care not one way or another. But there 
are millions more who would rejoice could such a 
thing be, but are entirely and frankly skeptical as 
to its possibility. 

In the meantime that slogan is being sounded 
abroad, and is being burned into the heart of youth. 
What shall we say of it, and what is likely to be its 
outcome? What is the desirability and the chance 
of winning “The world for Christ in this genera¬ 
tion” ? 


138 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


I. The Colossal Size of It 

The task of winning a whole world is a sizable 
job. “The world” is a pretty big place. It may be 
true that our planet is getting smaller and smaller, 
if we measure it by the seconds it takes to flash a 
wireless message around it, or the incredible speed 
with which express train and airship may make the 
circuit of it. But it is a pretty big place still if we 
visualize the masses of the people that inhabit it. 

Think of a world of sixteen hundred millions of 
human beings, separated from each other by many 
different colors of skin, by several hundred different 
languages and dialects, by many varieties of pre¬ 
judice and hate, by abysmal depths of ignorance and 
superstition, by utterly differing backgrounds of 
ancestral history and traditions, by violently op¬ 
posed customs and practices, and there grows the 
sense of difficulty of bringing that heterogeneous 
mass to think alike and see alike on any subject 
whatever, and especially on a subject so intimate 
and personal as religion. 

It is true that the last hundred years of missions 
have seen almost incredible things brought to pass. 
The chasms of language have been bridged, barriers, 
one after another, of prejudice and hate and mis¬ 
trust have been removed, and the whole world has 
been thrown wide open to the gospel as one could 
scarcely have believed possible in the beginning. 

And it is true that the successes of more recent 
years have been wonderfully heartening. On page 
426 of the World Service Volume , there is a most 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


139 


encouraging chart. It shows the curve of increas¬ 
ing membership on the foreign field in the last sixty 
years. Beginning sixty years ago with only a little 
over 2,000 members, the line climbs upward by 
decades to 15,000, and then to 74,000, and to 181,000, 
and to 340,000, and to 541,000, and in 1922 it has 
become almost vertical, and has reached to more 
than 600,000. That is all very encouraging indeed. 
It makes the future bright with hopes. 

But we should not permit ourselves to be deceived 
into thinking that the task is just about done, or 
may be easily completed. The fact is that we have 
just made a good beginning. A huge unfinished task 
stretches before us. 

Let us visualize our Methodist responsibility. It 
has been estimated that, depending upon all other 
churches to do their part in evangelizing the sec¬ 
tions of the world allotted to them, there would still 
remain a hundred millions of people that would be 
our special responsibility as Methodists. A hun¬ 
dred millions! What a handful is six hundred thou¬ 
sand beside them. 

Imagine those figures in terms of the United 
States. Suppose, instead of the forty or forty-five 
million church members in America, and all of the 
numerous denominations carrying on their aggres¬ 
sive work of Christianizing America, every one of 
these agencies would withdraw their resources to 
work elsewhere and would leave upon the shoulders 
of us Methodists the entire responsibility of evan¬ 
gelizing the hundred and ten million people. And 
suppose America were broken up into hundreds of 


140 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


different languages and dialects, and we had but 
seven hundred thousand members to do the job. 

Even as it is, the task of winning America for 
Christ is a long way from being completed, with all 
the work of all the churches going forward. What 
a colossal task would be ours if we faced it alone! 
It would mean that 994 per cent of the population 
would still be unevangelized, and we would feel that 
we had made but a meager beginning. 

Yet that is the situation we face on the foreign 
field. This is said not by way of discouragement. 
The outlook was never so promising. But we must 
face the facts. Many a battle has been lost because 
of overconfidence. Many an enterprise has failed 
because of underestimation of the difficulty. We 
need to visualize the colossal size of the job yet to 
be done in order to see how unthinkable it is that 
any man deserving to be called Christian should 
dare to shirk his share of it, or to think it calls for 
less than the very best he is and has. 


II. The Audacious Faith of It 

In this slogan “The world for Christ in this gen 
eration,” there is evident an audacious faith. It is 
assumed that our Christian religion is worthy to be 
exported to every country in the world, to take 
precedence over all other religions. It is assumed 
that the figure of our Christ is worthy of such ex¬ 
altation as to justify our lifting him above every 
other founder of great religions, to be the Master 
and the supplanter of them all. For it must be 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


141 4 

remembered that Christianity is not the only great 
religion in the world. There are at least four other 
great religions, most of which are more hoary and 
ancient than ours, and which, taken together, com¬ 
mand a following twice as large as Christianity. It 
is claimed that there are in round numbers 500,000,- 
000 Christians in the world. That includes, of 
course, whole populations of so-called Christian na¬ 
tions, like the United States and Canada and the 
nations of Europe, and includes all brands of Chris¬ 
tians, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Prot¬ 
estant, and all. But there are 200,000,000 Budd¬ 
hists, and 217,000,000 Hindus, and 238,000,000 Mo¬ 
hammedans, and 400,000,000 Confucianists, or a 
total of more than a billion people in the world who 
follow a faith that is other than Christian. 

There are some ill-informed and unimpassioned 
“Christians,” who, affecting a breadth of mind and 
a tolerance of spirit, have said, “Is it not a rather 
audacious thing to assume that ours is the one uni¬ 
versal religion for the whole world? How do we 
know that Christianity is the final religion, or that 
we should presume to thrust it upon other peoples? 
May not their religion be as satisfactory for them 
as ours may be for us? Will not these non-Chris¬ 
tians get along pretty well if they live up to the 
religion they already have?” 

But those who have a deep appreciation of the 
essential values of Christianity, and who have 
studied at first hand these other great religions, con¬ 
cur with great unanimity in the oft-quoted state¬ 
ment of Bishop McDowell. The distinguished 


142 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


bishop had just made a trip around the world. He 
had felt the awful depression of heathenism at first 
hand. He had witnessed with his own eyes the 
degradation and the ignorance and the immorality 
of the multitudes of devotees of these other religions, 
and with those pictures vividly before him, he said: 

“Many people have asked me if the heathen world 
as I saw it is not getting along pretty well with the 
religion it has. And I wanted to find every good 
thing there was, and rejoiced in every good thing 
that appeared. But here is the answer: Nobody 
anywhere is getting along pretty well without Jesus 
Christ. The thing that burns into your very soul, 
in every heathen temple, and before every heathen 
shrine, and especially in the face of heathenism’s 
life of sorrow and sin, is this: ‘There is no other 
name/ Humanity is morally wrecked, and the non- 
Christian religions are helpless to bring redemption. 
The whole race is sick unto death, and there is no 
Physician but One.” 1 

I have indicated that it is only the uninformed 
and the unimpassioned who have held to the other 
opinion. We have not space here to. discuss in detail 
the contrasts between ours and other religions. 2 

The more one delves into the problem, the more 
one agrees with Professor Soper, that “Such a reli¬ 
gion is universal—not because Jesus Christ issued 


"McDowell, Good Ministers of Jesus Christ, p. 77f. Used 
by permission of The Methodist Book Concern, publishers. 

*A most illuminating discussion of this subject will be 
found in Professor Soper’s The Faiths of Mankind. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


143 


a command to carry his gospel to the ends of the 
earth but because it fits the needs of men. It is all 
summed up in the life and character of Jesus Christ 
—our religion is essentially what its name indicates, 
the religion of Christ—Christianity. Paradoxical 
as it may seem, the only way to make democracy 
safe is to make Jesus King in the hearts of men. 
He is the world’s only hope, because he is the only 
figure who looms up larger than Confucius or 
Buddha, or Moses, or Mohammed. None greater 
than they have lived, yet how full of mistakes and 
failures! Yet here is Jesus, immaculate in his 
purity and stainless in all his deeds. 

“Thou only, O crystal Christ, art worthy to lead 
all the world’s noblest.” 3 

Richard Watson Gilder has expressed this same 
faith in picturing the attitude of an observer of 
Christ in 31 a. d. 

“If Jesus Christ is a man, 

And only a man, I say 
That of all mankind, I cleave to him, 

And to him will I cleave alway. 

“If Jesus Christ is a God, 

And the only God, I swear 
I will follow him through heaven and hell, 

The earth, the sea, and the air.” 4 

That is the burning faith that is back of this cru¬ 
sade to win the world. It does not mean to scorn 


8 Soper, Faiths of Mankind, p. 151. 

‘Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co., publishers. 



144 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


and despise the other religions. The fact of their 
existence is evidence that “man is incurably reli¬ 
gious.” They represent his groping and bungling at¬ 
tempts to reach God and find redemption. But 
Christianity comes to show the “more excellent 
way.” It is humanity’s “dream of religion come 
true.” It has justified its claim to be a wdrld reli¬ 
gion. It has adapted itself to every age and race 
and country. It is “humanity’s only hope.” 


III. The Superlative Need of It 

But this crusade will not be pressed in dead 
earnest until the sense of superlative need gets into 
our very blood. It was not until millions of people 
saw the evidence piling mountain high against 
alcohol, and they were convinced of the desperate 
need of abolishing its traffic, that they became suffi¬ 
ciently in earnest about it to bring victory. 

The crusade to win the world will wait for vic¬ 
tory until the millions become equally in earnest 
to bring it. If there was abundant evidence to 
produce that conviction in the former case, there is 
tenfold more evidence in this, for it concerns the 
whole world and touches life from every angle. Our 
problem is to “get the facts to the folks.” It is to 
make them see the evidence. Once the supreme 
necessity for winning the world for Christ gets into 
their thinking and their praying, it will get into 
their doing and giving and going, and then the King¬ 
dom will come apace. 

What is the nature of that supreme need? Why 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


145 


get wrought up and excited over it? What par¬ 
ticular difference does it make to us what happens 
“three thousand miles away,” or five thousand, or 
ten? 

Much every way. Glenn Frank in one of his 
brilliant editorials in the Century Magazine 5 draws 
attention to the analogy between our modern com¬ 
plex civilization and the human body. He reviews 
a recent book by an eminent scientist on the Biology 
of Death. Why should a body die? It is by no 
means a biological necessity. The cells that make 
up man are theoretically immortal. In a suit¬ 
able medium, properly fed, warmed, and protected 
against accident, every one of them might go on 
dividing and subdividing for all eternity. But man 
always dies. Why? “Because,” says this scientist, 
“the cells from which he springs, in the course of 
their multiplication and differentiation, to form 
various parts of his body, become so highly interde¬ 
pendent, that it is now more and more difficult for 
some of them to function and keep alive. The brain 
cell, for instance, cannot exist for more than a few 
moments unless there is a heart cell somewhere 
pumping food to it and carrying away its excreta. 
If that service ceases, it will either die of starvation 
or of auto-intoxication. So with other cells. . . . 
Damage done to one group is pretty sure to be fol¬ 
lowed by damage to other groups. So the whole 
machine goes to pieces and the man dies.” 6 


6 Century Magazine, December, 1923. 
•Used by permission of author. 





146 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Says this editor, we may find here an accurate 
and striking picture of our modern complex civiliza¬ 
tion. The nations have become veritably as parts 
of the same body, mutually dependent upon one 
another. The fate of the whole body of civilization 
will depend upon the way in which each group of 
nation cells is kept healthy and able to do its own 
part. 

Mr. Frank applies this illustration with telling 
effect in arguing against a policy of political isola¬ 
tion on the part of the United States, and the neces¬ 
sity of working to keep every other nation function¬ 
ing in healthy fashion if our own is to be preserved. 
“The diseases of civilization can cross every ocean, 
filter through every foreign policy and overleap 
every barricade. We must master the perils of inter¬ 
dependence or be mastered by them. Foreign policy 
is no longer a matter of party politics. It is a 
matter of life or death.” 

It is even more true that missionary policy is a 
matter of life or death. For the ultimate mastering 
of the perils of interdependence will prove to be a 
task not of politics but of religion.. 

Consider, for example, one group of cells in this 
modern complex body—China, comprising one quar¬ 
ter of the human race. Does anybody dare say it is 
of no concern to him what course China takes in 
the coming decades as she readjusts herself to mod¬ 
ern civilization? “The problems of China are the 
heart of the problems of the Far East. And the 
problems of the Far East are the problems of future 
world peace. It is instinct that rivets our attention 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


147 


on China. From that land will come good or ill 
for us all. . . . The world is too small to con¬ 

tain international disease anywhere and not be 
menaced everywhere.” 7 

How can China be made a healthy group of cells, 
properly functioning for the health and prosperity 
of the whole body, rather than spreading a disease 
that may menace the life of the whole body? The 
Christian enterprise provides the answer as in dead 
earnest it sets about the task of winning China for 
Christ, in order that Christ may transform China 
into a great, free, Christian nation. 

What is true of China may be said of every other 
country, and it is equally true of our own. The 
problem is essentially the same the world round. 
Aggressive pressing of the Christian enterprise at 
home and abroad is the only way to life. 

It may be said that Christianity is to the world’s 
life not unlike what the white corpuscles are to the 
blood. The white corpuscles are the sturdy fighters 
for the health of the body. When a marauding band 
of disease germs threatens the safety and well-being 
of the body, these white corpuscles immediately join 
battle, and overcome the invaders, and put them 
to death or render them harmless. Let the white 
corpuscles become too few, or cease their perpetual 
defense, and immediately vast hordes of enemy 
germs would overrun the body, and sickness and 
death would ensue. 

7 The World Service of the Methodist Episcopal Church , 

p. 6. 


148 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


There are selfish and earthward tendencies in 
every one of our hearts that need to be held in check. 
There are beastly impulses that must be repressed. 
The aggressive influence of religion in every life is 
that power which helps keep the animal under, and 
makes it subservient to the things of the spirit. If 
all such influence were withdrawn from your 
heart, how long would it take the animal in you to 
work your ruin? 

There are sinister and menacing forces at work 
in every community, only waiting their opportunity 
to carry out their own iniquitous purposes. What 
if in your community every church were closed and 
every Sunday school were to cease its teaching of 
youth and every other humanitarian agency were to 
give up its task? Suppose we were to say: “Why 
should we interfere with any other man’s religious 
opinions? Why carry on any aggressive effort to 
influence other men for right thinking and action? 
Let every man be at liberty to be religious or not as 
he pleases.” How long do you think it would take 
for the natural earthward gravitation, and the un¬ 
bridled and unhindered forces of evil to render your 
community an utterly intolerable place in which to 
live ? 

In spite of the scores of denominations with their 
numerous home mission boards and uplift agencies, 
working aggressively to make America a Christian 
nation, there are many things even in our country 
for which we must apologize. There were six times 
as many murders and homicides in.Chicago as in all 
of England, nearly twice as many divorces as in 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


149 


the rest of the Christian world. Think also of the 
slums of our cities, the four billion dollars worth of 
property stolen in one year, our bootlegging and 
moonshining, and industrial injustice—all that, in 
spite of the strenuous battle of the churches against 
them, and the effort to build up a better moral life 
in the nation. What would happen if we would sud- 
dently desist from all this aggressive effort, lose our 
passionate desire to win America for Christ, and let 
things take their natural course? How long would 
it take for social disease and consequent decay to 
rob America of her strength and bring her glory into 
eclipse? 

The fact is that every one of the one hundred 
and ten million people in the United States, good, 
bad, and indifferent, has a tremendously vital and 
personal interest in the aggressive campaign of the 
churches to make and keep America Christian, even 
though millions of them are not lifting a finger to 
help accomplish the task, and are even doing all 
in their power to make it difficult. And if such a 
crusade is so necessary in America, with all her 
background of education and idealism and Chris¬ 
tian training, how much greater is the necessity in 
other lands where the background has been so differ¬ 
ent. 

Throughout the world, aggressive powers of evil 
would work ruin unless somehow counteracted. 
Our western civilization is more and more touching 
the rest of the world. Shall we allow the material 
and selfish elements to be the only contacts we have 
with other nations? Would they not speedily be- 


150 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


come a serious menace without the moral and spir¬ 
itual ideals along with them ? 

Other religions are aggressive. Mohammedans 
are sweeping down across the continent of Africa, 
winning many times more converts right at this mo¬ 
ment than are being won by Christianity. Has not 
the world's experience with the Turk, in recent 
years, dominated as he is by his Mohammedan faith, 
been sufficient warning against the further spread 
of that religion through the world? 

A frank and fearless facing of the facts, whether 
in the near or the far, whether in our own hearts, or 
our own neighborhood, or our own beloved country, 
or “the uttermost parts of the earth,” will lead us to 
the same inevitable conclusion—that the need is 
superlative, that a crusade to win “the world for 
Christ in this generation” is a matter of life or 
death. It is “either Christ or chaos.” 


IV. The Resistless Call of It 

To acquaint oneself with the facts, and to feel 
keenly the need, is to be swept along by the resist¬ 
less call of this crusade into the utmost endeavor 
to bring its realization. 

Over against the pathetic and desperate need are 
to be placed our abundant resources and ability to 
meet the need. Never was America so rich or com¬ 
fortable or prosperous. And as Christians we 
share in that comfort and prosperity to at least the 
level of the average citizen. Does that spell the 
measure of our responsibility? 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


151 


“If I have eaten my morsel alone,” 

The patriaroh spoke in scorn. 

What would he think of the church, were he shown 
Heathendom—huge, forlorn, 

Godless, Christless, with soul unfed, 

While the Church’s ailment is fullness of bread, 
Eating her morsel alone? 

“Freely as ye have received, so give,” 

He bade who hath given us all. 

How shall the soul in us longer live, 

Deaf to their starving call, 

For whom the blood of the Lord was shed, 

And his body broken to give them bread, 

If we eat our morsel alone? 8 

Verily, we cannot preserve our own Christian ex¬ 
perience if in face of the world’s need we withhold 
the bread of life from men, and “eat our morsel 
alone.” 

In face of the desperate need and our ability and 
resources, here are the channels for our expression 
waiting for us. “World Service!” What a term 
to conjure with! What a phrase to thank God for! 
It must have been an inspiration of God that caused 
the choice of those words to describe the benevolent 
work of our church. What a vast, efficient, world¬ 
wide organization is ready at hand to make possible 
the projecting of our own Christian purpose across 
the world! The call of this crusade demands a re¬ 
sponse that is more than mere generous sentiment 
and pious hope. Through the benevolent channels 

8 The Scorn of Job —Archbishop Alexander quoted from 
James Mudge: Poems With Power to Strengthen the Soul r 
p. 284. The Abingdon Press. 



152 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


of the church, that practical and efficient response 
is made possible for each of us. Dare we hesitate 
to make it? 

f “I know a land that is sunk in shame, 

^ Of souls that stumble and mire. 

I know of a name, a name, a name, 

That will set that land on fire. 

Its letters coals, its syllables flame, 

I know a name, a name, a name, 

That will set that land on fire.’ 

The knowledge of that Name is a sacred trust and 
a terrific responsibility. Dare we know that Name, 
and let our tongues remain dumb? Dare we know 
the way out of the mire for the nations of the world, 
and then refrain from proclaiming to the utmost 
limit of our ability that One who is the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life? 

The crusade to win the world for Christ in this 
generation demands something more than the mere 
expression of pious sentiment. The vote you cast in 
favor of that enterprise is not the vote of word, 
but of deed. Only the most aggressive and con¬ 
secrated action on the part of every one who believes 
in it, and longs to see it consummated, will ever 
bring that crusade to pass. 

It is just this demand for immediate action, how¬ 
ever, that has caused the church in the past to make 
one of its most stupid and fatal blunders. It has 
led her to overlook the immeasurable and utterly in¬ 
dispensable part which she must depend upon youth 



3 Author unknown. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


153 


to play if this goal is ever reached. As one church 
leader has expressed it, she has been too much under 
the “tyranny of immediacy.” In a sense this fault 
has been her glory too. She has been moved by the 
sight of the world’s heart-breaking need. She has 
realized that only Christ could meet that need. In 
great faith she has sent forth her messengers by the 
thousand to preach and teach and heal around the 
world. This vast establishment must be main¬ 
tained. Expenses must be met, salaries must be 
paid. In the midst of changing world conditions 
and falling exchange rates, the work must not suffer, 
but must be pressed with even greater energy, in 
order to take full advantage of victories won. 

She has been compelled, in consequence, to be con¬ 
cerned about “the present fiscal year,” and financial 
crises, and money campaigns, and paying of pledges, 
and making up of deficits, and preventing heart¬ 
breaking retrenchments—all of which has erected a 
certain standard of values. Whatever can bring re¬ 
sults “before midnight of October 31” is all impor¬ 
tant. Methods by which wealthy church members 
can be pried loose from their money “this month” 
for the saving of their own souls and the meeting 
of the crisis are at a premium. 

Men working at fever heat in such an atmosphere 
hardly have time to wipe the sweat from their spec¬ 
tacles and take a good calm look at the situation ten 
years or twenty years from now. Nor do they find 
it easy to set much value upon a crowd of young 
folks who cannot figure largely in the receipts “for 
the current fiscal year.” This is not said to dis- 


154 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


count either their vision or their motives. All 
honor to those who are putting their all into the 
sweat and labor and sacrifice of meeting to-day’s 
challenge. 

Yet their very perplexities and anxieties to-day 
may be due to the same “hand-to-mouth” policy 
followed years ago, when church leaders were under 
the same “tyranny of immediacy,” and failed to 
have the “long look.” The young people of yester¬ 
day who were left out of the program as of no im¬ 
mediate help in meeting the missionary crisis of 
their day and were allowed to pass through those 
precious educable years without being trained to be 
“world Christians” and partner-stewards of God, 
make up to-day the ranks of those adults who con¬ 
sider a missionary address an intolerable bore, who 
complain bitterly that the church is forever begging 
for money, and who, when they are inveigled into 
parting with a dollar for missions, bid it farewell 
with a look of dull and incurable pain. It is the 
presence of large numbers of these “good” people 
that turn the missionary-spirited pastor and the 
Board secretary white haired and handicap the work 
of winning the world. 

If the numbers of such paradoxical and impos¬ 
sible “Christians” are to be reduced to the vanishing 
point in the future, it will be only as we avoid this 
fatal blunder of the past, and give to youth his 
rightful place in the scheme of things. The time 
to educate Christians with a missionary viewpoint 
is the same time we educate in history, geometry, 
literature, music, and every other field worth while 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


155 


—the educable period of youth. If at least a good 
beginning is not made then, the task is as difficult, 
if not as impossible, as to teach a man to play the 
violin after he is twenty-five. He may learn some¬ 
thing about it, but he will always be awkward at 
it. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. 

‘‘The world for Christ in this generation” de¬ 
mands the long look. It is not a question of this 
year and next year only. It is a question of this 
generation. And the only folks who really belong 
to this new generation and will have a chance to 
live it out and serve it with their whole lives are 
the youth of to-day. To bring them the facts in 
missionary education concretely, vividly, compel- 
linglv, and then to secure their enlistment as intelli¬ 
gent partner-stewards in a dedication of time, 
talent, money, and life—this great task will prove 
in the long run the indispensable strategy. The 
strenuous and ingenious effort year by year to make 
ends meet in sustaining the present missionary work 
on the field, necessary and commendable as that is, 
must not be allowed to obscure the even more vital 
and farsighted duty of the training of youth. How 
well this latter responsibility is met will determine 
whether this great slogan “The world for Christ 
in this generation” will prove only an impractical 
dream or a workable program with a chance of 
success. 


Y. The Epworth League's Response to It 
The Epworth League has been making notable re- 


156 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


sponse to this call through its Second-Department 
program of mission study and stewardship. 

1. The Epworth League has sought, first of all, 
to make itself a school for the educating of World 
Christians. “Get the facts to the folks” has been 
its motto. It has believed that the acts of God 
working through his modern apostles throughout 
the world form as essential and as thrilling a story 
as his acts through ancient apostles. It has be¬ 
lieved that young people should be intelligent about 
what God is doing to-day in bringing in his King¬ 
dom. History is in the making at the present mo¬ 
ment as truly as in any former moment. And his¬ 
tory is yet to be made. If young people are to have 
a hand in making it to-morrow, they must know the 
kind of history God has been pleased with in the 
past and the kind he wants made to-morrow. 

The Epworth League has believed, furthermore, 
that nothing short of a consciousness of the whole 
planet, and a vision of God’s purposes for every na¬ 
tion and race, should be considered satisfactory in 
Christian training. We must develop world citizens 
with a world viewpoint. The time to establish that 
wide horizon is in youth, and the great agency to 
accomplish it is youth’s own study and worship, 
activity and giving. 

The League has developed a program for this pur¬ 
pose that has had most gratifying success. An 
essential step in that development has been the In¬ 
stitute mission study class. There, under ideal 
conditions, hundreds of classes have been held, under 
competent leaders, who were able to make missions 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


157 


one of the livest and most intensely fascinating sub¬ 
jects in the whole schedule. Such classes served 
not only to arouse interest among members of the 
class, but became an object lesson on how such a 
class could be conducted. They introduced the stu¬ 
dents to some standard textbook, and inspired them 
with the courage to tackle a similar study of the 
book in their home chapters. 

The rapid and widespread multiplication of these 
classes was to be expected, and has come to pass. 
In 1917 the number of such classes reporting was 
850; in 1918-19, 2,005; in 1919-20, 2,508; in 1920-21, 
3,002; in 1921-22, 5,026; in 1922-23, 5,751. It is 
probable that during these years more than a half 
million young people were studying missions. 

The multiplication of study classes has created a 
demand for suitable textbooks covering the whole 
field. These have been forthcoming year by year, 
until now the Epworth League has an imposing 
array of missionary literature, which covers the 
field, and increasingly is providing the information 
needed. 

The growing list of fascinating books is encourag¬ 
ing another phase of missionary education, namely, 
missionary reading. Thousands of young people 
during 1922-23 pledged themselves to read at least 
one missionary book during the year. 

An essential part of the educative process is defi¬ 
nite expression. The Twenty-four-Hour-Day Plan 
has provided that element 4n part, for missionary 
education of youth. The Epworth League, now do¬ 
ing business in thirty-two different countries, is 


158 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


rapidly coming to be a world wide enterprise. It 
aims to provide training for leadership among young 
people wherever the church is at work. It is render¬ 
ing a most indispensable service on every mission 
field in raising up a native leadership which shall 
be able to make a strong native church in the future. 
This is essentially the Leaguer’s own primary inter¬ 
est, in helping his fellow youth of other lands. The 
sun never sets on the opportunity provided through 
the League to serve the youth of the world. It is a 
service that extends through the whole twenty-four 
hours of every day. 

To meet these growing demands around the world, 
the Twenty-four-Hour-Day Plan has been devised. 
While the Epworth League now forms a coordinate 
part of a regular benevolent board, and shares in 
the World Service Funds, yet this offers opportunity 
for Leaguers to support tl*eir own work at the rate 
of two cents per member per week. Credit is given 
on World Service quotas to the local church for. 
every cent paid. 

The educational value of this sort of giving is in¬ 
calculable in helping to develop world Christians. 
Each Leaguer can be made to feel that he is defi¬ 
nitely linked up with the young people on the other 
side of the world, and his Kingdom citizenship be¬ 
comes more a reality. 

No one can visualize this great missionary educa¬ 
tion movement now going on in the Epworth League 
without realizing that the history of the next 
decades in missionary enterprise is actually in the 
making. The call to the Epworth League is to ex- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


159 


tend this education to the utmost. There are nearly 
20,000 chapters, Senior and Junior. Then there 
should be not less than that number of classes every 
year. Every young person in Methodism should be 
led to study missions and to read missionary litera¬ 
ture. It should be made unanimous. For sheer 
importance in promoting the Kingdom of God in 
this generation, what could be imagined that would 
be the equal of such a program in its ultimate re¬ 
sults? 

2. The League has responded to the call “The 
world for Christ in this generation,” in the second 
place, by its training in stewardship and its enlist¬ 
ment of youth to be partners with God in his world 
work. 

The study of missions makes clear the great ob¬ 
jective to be reached in “the world for Christ.” The 
task, when intelligently faced, seems so vast and 
overwhelming that an individual youth is likely to 
think of his own life as infinitesimal and of little 
consequence. How could it matter much in the total 
result whether his mite were added or not? Stew¬ 
ardship sets him right. His life is not his own. 
Such as it is, much or little, it belongs to Another. 
He is responsible to give an account of it. It is 
trusted to him as a junior partner, to be employed 
to the best possible advantage in furthering the 
Fatherly purposes of the Senior Partner. Such a 
partnership, if acknowledged by all of the partners, 
would provide abundant resources for the firm’s en¬ 
tire business, however small the individual re¬ 
sources would be. 


160 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Stewardship is a point of view from which to re¬ 
gard every detail of life. It was no doubt some¬ 
thing of this which Livingstone had in mind when 
he said: “I will place no value on anything I have 
or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom 
of Christ. If anything I have will advance the inter¬ 
ests of that Kingdom, it shall be given away or kept 
only as by giving or keeping it I may promote the 
glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time 
and in eternity.” 

That is stewardship at its best. And the abiding 
fruits of Livingstone’s life indicate something of 
what it would mean to teach a generation of youth 
that viewpoint of life. You have a gift for friend¬ 
ship. How can that be used best to advance the 
Kingdom? You have a voice, you have talent for 
speaking, you have youth and health and education. 
What would it mean if you held to the stewardship 
point of view, and should regard all of these as 
sacred trusts, to be used with the sole purpose of 
advancing the kingdom of God? Suppose every 
youth in the church to-day could be brought to do 
that. One sure result would be an inestimable boon 
to personal character. That is what real Christian 
character is. That is consecration. That is “holi¬ 
ness” of the highest type. But more than that, it 
would guarantee all the outpouring of life and 
means that would be needed to carry the gospel to 
the last man in the world. 

Such a steward would not grumble at the “tenth.” 
He would count it as the least that he could do—a 
splendid starting-point in the handling of his posses* 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


161 


sions for the Kingdom. He would count it a sort 
of test of the genuineness of his loyalty, an outward 
proof that he was dealing fairly and honorably with 
God. What the spiritual fruitage of such dealing 
with God would be, many testify. Robert E. Speer 
has given such a testimony in these words: “I think 
every man will find, as every man who has passed 
through the experience can testify, that the accept¬ 
ance of a principle like this (the tithe) marks a 
distinct era of spiritual enlargement in his life.” 

As for the material consequences for the future 
years, in the furthering of the Kingdom, that would 
result if a generation of youth adopted the principle 
of the tithe there can be no doubt. Roger Babson’s 
words at this point are suggestive: 

“Let us think for a moment,” he says, “what 
would happen if every church member in the United 
States should actually do as the Bible suggests, 
and set aside one tenth of his income for God. There 
are about forty million members in our Christian 
churches, with about forty billion dollars total in¬ 
come. Calculate the tremendous power summed up 
in one tenth of that amount —four billion dollars! 
Spent wisely and honestly, such a sum would estab¬ 
lish all the additional schools necessary to fit our 
young men and women for a religious life. It would 
operate all the hospitals and training schools needed 
to treat all those who must go through life with 
physical handicaps. It would furnish enough money 
in a few years time to teach every living soul the 
principles of righteousness.” 

What a sane and sensible and effective method 


162 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


that would be of financing the Kingdom. But we 
are brought back again to the great fact which we 
have touched upon so often, that the hope is with 
youth. I am told that that consecrated “Layman” 
who has written so much on this subject has said 
that there is not much hope of enlisting folks to be 
tithers after they are thirty. If we would raise up 
a generation of tithing stewards, it is the period 
of youth that offers the opportunity. 

The Epworth League has demonstrated that it 
can be done. Through its program of stewardship 
classes and its emphasis in devotional meetings not 
less than fifty thousand tithers have been enrolled 
in the four years, 1920 to 1923. Among all the en¬ 
rollments secured in the entire church, these are 
doubtless by all odds the most significant. What 
they may mean in future years for the church and 
Kingdom the most vivid imagination could not pic¬ 
ture. 

The goal has now been set at enrolling five hun¬ 
dred thousand tithing stewards through the Ep¬ 
worth League in the next ten years. That is a big 
contract. What a thrilling challenge it presents! 
The “World for Christ” is a big contract too. But 
it is one to which our Lord is clearly calling us. “In 
this generation” will be a fleeting period too, but it 
is the only chance we will have at the present crowd 
that populates the globe. When the next genera¬ 
tion of workers takes our places, they will be deal¬ 
ing with an altogether new generation of folks. The 
only chance we have to win those living now is in 
this generation, and it is a big contract. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


163 


But we have a great Christ who is not daunted by 
big contracts, for he said, “Be of good cheer, I have 
overcome the world.” He who came to reconcile 
the world to God, and has committed unto us the 
word of reconciliation, has implanted within us, in 
our making, sufficient resources that if dedicated to 
him in stewardship, would make certain the ulti¬ 
mate victory. Dare we withhold them? Not when 
so entrancing and infinitely desirable an ideal as 
“The world for Christ” is brought nearer by such 
dedication. 


“There on the border 
Of boundless Ocean, 
And all but in heaven 
Hovers the Gleam. 

O young Mariner, 

Down to the haven, 

Call your companions, 

“Launch your vessel 
And crowd your canvas, 
And, ere it vanishes 
Over the margin 
After it, follow it, 
“Follow the Gleam .” 10 


VI. The Second Vice-President 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 


10 Tennyson, Merlin and the Gleam. 



164 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


1. His Task: Already discussed as follows: 

(1) To make the League a school for the educat¬ 

ing of world Christians. 

(2) To keep vividly before the members the world 

program of the League and church. 

(3) To present the claims of Christian steward¬ 

ship as a vehicle for winning the world for 
Christ. 

2. His Tools: 

(1) The Efficient Epworthian Series. 

(2) Central Office literature, including 

A. Enrollment Blanks: 

Mission study enrollment cards. 
Million Methodist Missionary Readers 
enrollment cards. 

Pledge cards for Tithing stewards. 

B. Leaflets on Mission study, missionary 

reading, Twenty-four-Hour-Day, 
Stewardship, etc. 

(3) A catalogue list of the Epworth League Mis¬ 

sion study and Stewardship textbooks for 
study classes. 

(4) “The World Service of the Methodist Epis¬ 

copal Church.” 

3. His Methods: 

(1) Organizing the Department—The second vice- 
president may have four committees to 
good advantage: 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


165 


A. Committee on Mission Study. 

B. Committee on Reading Clubs. 

C. Committee on World Program of 

League. 

D. Committee on Stewardship and Tith¬ 

ing. 

(2) Making the League a school for educating 
World Christians. 

A. Let his own life be steeped in mission¬ 

ary reading and prayer. 

B. Enlist the Cabinet in similar activity. 

C. Create atmosphere for missions in 

League room. 

a. Maps and charts. 

b. Pictures of missionaries, etc. 

D. Start a mission Study Class. 

(For Committee on Mission Study.) 

a. Use devotional meetings during 

January and February. 

b. If possible, arrange for addi¬ 

tional week night class in fall 
or at other time of year. 
Many arrange for a class in 
connection with church¬ 
training night, especially for 
young people, using an Ep- 
worth League text. 

c. Be sure that the leader chosen 

is mission-minded. 


16G 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


d. Start auspiciously. Have 

pastor preach on subject, 
and invite Leaguers to at¬ 
tend in a body. Have a sup¬ 
ply of enrollment blanks 
with you and personally en¬ 
roll as many as possible in 
the class. 

e. Study the plan of conducting 

class suggested by the Mis¬ 
sion Study and Stewardship 
Department of the Central 
Office, using the contest 
method, dividing class into 
two sides, with a captain 
over each. Teacher is 
referee. Scores are counted 
on basis of (1) Any perti¬ 
nent statement on the lesson. 
(2) Any proper question on 
lesson, to be answered next 
session. (3) Any right an¬ 
swer to questions asked. 
This method has many good 
points. Try it. 

f. Be ready to help sustain inter¬ 

est. Do not let the class 
languish and die before it is 
through. Help to make it 
so interesting that Leaguers 
will look forward with zest 
to the next course offered. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


167 


E. Encourage missionary reading. 

(For Committee on Reading Clut)s .) 

Get the Central Office pamphlet 
on that subject, and in season and 
out of season get folks to read mis¬ 
sionary literature. Have a reading 
contest. Provide a shelf of good 
mission books, and circulate them 
among the members. Consider it 
an all-year privilege to stress such 
reading. 

F. Use returned missionaries as speakers. 

G. Put on missionary programs, pag¬ 

eants, etc. 

H. Encourage devotional meeting leaders 

to use missionary illustrations, and 
to pray often for missions. 

(3) Keeping before members the World Program 
of the Epworth League. 

(For Committee on World Program of 
Epworth League.) 

A. Become thoroughly familiar with this 

world program of the League your¬ 
self—thirty-two countries in which 
League is operating, with some 
knowledge of the needs of various 
countries. 

B. Secure all literature on subject avail¬ 

able, and have it on hand for gen¬ 
eral reading. 

C. Have specific prayer at devotional 


168 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


meetings for League’s own mission¬ 
aries, the League secretaries of 
India, China, Mexico, etc. 

D. Secure if possible copies of letters 

from these secretaries describing 
their work, and read them at devo¬ 
tional or business meetings. (The 
“Epworth Herald” contains many 
of these.) 

E. Prepare a map showing countries 

where League is working, and the 
location of various secretaries. 

F. Keep the Twenty-four-Hour-Day plan 

before the League. Make them see 
that this is the first obligation of 
every League chapter, and that the 
very most effective way to harness 
the League to the general benevolent 
work of the church at large is by 
means of carrying the League’s 
own program of leadership training 
around the world. 

(4) Educating and enlisting of Tithing Stewards. 
(For the Committee on Stewardship and 
Tithing .) 

A. Begin by being a Christian steward 

yourself, and a tither. You will 
be in much better position to lead 
others into the practice by leading 
the way yourself. 

B. Circulate stewardship literature. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


169 


There is much splendid pamphlet 
literature available, and it will be 
sowing good seed to keep it in cir¬ 
culation. 

C. Have a stewardship reading contest. 

D. Organize a stewardship study class. 

Even if the class is not large, the 
presence of a few leaders who are 
thoroughly acquainted with the 
facts of stewardship, and are enthu¬ 
siastic, will greatly aid in reaching 
the rest of the chapter. 

E. Plan once or twice a year to present 

the subject of stewardship in a very 
definite way, and secure enroll¬ 
ments as tithing stewards. Consult 
your pastor, and, if you find it pos¬ 
sible, fit this program in if possible 
with the general church plans for 
a stewardship campaign. 

F. Once they are enrolled, follow them 

up and keep them encouraged. 
Have meetings occasionally for 
your tithers, in which they may dis¬ 
cuss their problems and ask ques¬ 
tions. Suggest practical ways in 
which their new purpose may find 
expression and they may become 
permanent tithers. 

G. Use the payment of the Twentv-four- 

Hour-Day Pledge, as well as regu¬ 
lar payment to the church budget 


170 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


as means of helping to firmly fix the 
habit in their lives. 

H. Above all things, make the subject of 
stewardship a big, broad, spiritual 
matter that summarizes the very 
Christian philosophy of life. Make 
it not a merely legalistic obligation 
but a supreme Christian privilege 
that will appeal to the highest and 
best in their spiritual life. You 
will then work hand in hand with 
the First Department in building 
Christian character, as well as with 
the whole church, in paving the way 
for the winning of the world to 
Christ. 


CHAPTER Y 

The Second Department: The Task of Winning 
a World 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 

Introduction: The watchwords and battle cries 
of youth are highly significant as prophecies of the 
happenings of tomorrow. The fulfillment of the 
slogan “A Saloonless Nation by 1920” would lead us 
to treat with respect other slogans initiated by the 
same crowd. One such other battle cry is “The 
World for Christ in this Generation.” In studying 
this task of winning the world for Christ, consider 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


171 


I. The Colossal Size of It. 

1. The natural difficulties in size of population of 

globe, language conditions, barriers, etc. 

2. The hugeness of the unfinished task before us 

even after one hundred years of missionary 
effort. 

II. The Audacious Faith of It. 

1. Assumption that Christianity is superior to 

every other religion. 

2. Comparison with other great religions. 

3. Reasons for believing that Christianity is not 

only superior but the only final and satisfac¬ 
tory religion. 

4. Assertion of faith needed to make this enter¬ 

prise succeed. 

III. The Superlative Need of It. 

1. Only a profound sense of need for winning 

world will be sufficient to enlist all resources 
at the task. 

2. Complex relationships of all peoples to-day 

make it imperative that we either master the 
perils of interdependence or be mastered by 
them. 

3. Christianity the one influence that can make 

every group of nation cells healthy function¬ 
ing units. 

4. May understand the need of aggressive Chris¬ 

tianity by trying to imagine what would hap¬ 
pen if such aggressive influence were with¬ 
drawn, in our own lives, in the community, 


172 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


in the nation, and in the world. Like white 
corpuscles in the blood, Christianity is the 
only influence that can counteract personal, 
social, and international disease, and make 
healthy life possible. 

5. Must make men see that winning the world for 
Christ is a matter of life or death; it is either 
Christ or chaos. 

IV. The Resistless Call of It. 

1. A facing of the facts moves one with the im¬ 

perious call of this crusade, which demands 
an answer not in pious sentiment but in deed. 

2. The demand for immediate action has led the 

church in the past under the “tyranny of im¬ 
mediacy,” in which the feverish attempt to 
meet present crisis has caused the neglect of 
the educating of youth in missions and stew¬ 
ardship for the part which they are to play 
in the future. 

3. The result of this blunder is the presence of 

multitudes of nonmissionary minded adults 
in the church to-day, which handicaps the 
coming of the Kingdom. 

4. If we are ever to have a race of missionary- 

minded members, it will be only as we give 
to youth to-day his rightful place in the 
scheme of things. 

5. Winning the world for Christ in this genera¬ 

tion will depend largely upon the program 
of education in missions and stewardship 
among the youth. 




FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


173 


V. The Epworth Leaguers Response to It. 

1. The Epworth League has responded to this 

challenge by its program of educating world 
Christians—a program which has become 
world-wide through the Twenty-four-Hour- 
Day Plan. 

2. It responds also in its education and enlist¬ 

ment of Christian stewards, thus providing 
for the future the means by which the world 
may at last be won. 

YI. The Second Vice-President. 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 

(1) Methods for Organizing the Department. 

(2) Making the League a school for educat¬ 

ing of World Christians. 

(3) Keeping before the members the world 

program of the Epworth League. 

(4) Educating and enlisting of Christian 

stewards. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. Discuss the value of slogans that have been 
sounded in the past. Can you think of other slogans 
that ought to be sounded, representing other great 
unfinished tasks and challenging crusades? 

2. What is meant by the slogan: “The world for 
Christ in this generation” ? Do you think it prac¬ 
ticable ? 


174 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


3. From your missionary study and reading, what 
evidence can you marshal as to the colossal size of 
the task? 

4. Why should every Christian be concerned with 
the winning of the world for Christ ? 

5. What proportion of the young people of your 
acquaintance know enough about the great things 
God is trying to do in his world through Christian 
missions to carry on an ordinary intelligent con¬ 
versation about the subject? 

6. If an Epworth League chapter were really 
Christian, do you think it would be possible for any 
Leaguer to come up through his years of member¬ 
ship in that chapter without being reasonably well 
informed about the Christian missionary enterprise, 
and especially, the missionary program of Meth¬ 
odism? Would it be possible in your chapter? 

7. Discuss the plans for the Second Department, 
by means of which the Epworth League is attempt¬ 
ing to grow a generation of “World Christians.” 
How much of that program is being carried out in 
your chapter? What practical steps may be taken 
to make your chapter more truly missionary 
minded? 

8. Why is the study of stewardship of such spe¬ 
cial importance to youth? 

9. Should high-school and college students and 
other young people become tithers, even before they 
begin to earn an income of their own ? Why ? 

10. What should be considered the major quali¬ 
fications to be looked for in selecting a second vice- 
president ? 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


175 


CHAPTER VI 

THE THIRD DEPARTMENT: THE TASK OF 
PUTTING SOCIAL SYMPATHY INTO DEED 

The suggestive word of Marcus Aurelius that 
“Men were born for the service and benefit of each 
other’ 7 may account for the instinctive appeal that 
a real man-sized job of helpfulness always makes 
to the heart of youth. His desire to be always “do¬ 
ing something” is more than a mere craving to work 
off surplus energy. There is a native chivalry in his 
being that responds irresistibly to the challenge of 
a real need, and when he can feel that his expendi¬ 
ture of himself is setting forward some worth while 
enterprise, then sacrifice becomes a joy. 

The crusade to enlist the youth of to-day under 
the banner of Christ, if it is to be wise, and have a 
chance of success, must appeal to this God-im¬ 
planted instinct. There is an incident in the experi¬ 
ence of Moses that suggests the successful approach. 
We are told that when that great leader tried to 
influence Hobab, his brother-in-law, to join with 
them in their pilgrimage, toward their fascinating 
“Land of Promise,” he first appealed to the latter’s 
self-interest. He said: “Come thou with us, and we 
will do thee good.” Hobab remained unmoved. The 
promise of some vague and misty and distant re¬ 
ward did not interest him. He said, “I will not.” 

Finding he had failed in this, Moses played upon 


176 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


another motive. He appealed to Hobab’s chivalry 
and heroism and to his desire to be of service. He 
said in effect: “Come with us, for not only will we 
do you good, but you can do us good. These people 
of mine were slaves but yesterday in Egypt. They 
know nothing about life here in the wilderness. But 
these are your native haunts. You can be their 
guide and point out the way. They need you. You 
can be to them as eyes in the wilderness.” It was 
then that Hobab yielded. He could not withstand 
that appeal. The chance to meet a real need far 
outweighed the gratifying of his own self-interest. 

Hobab well typifies the youth of to-day. The 
thought of some vague and distant future reward, 
with its corollary of possible punishment, or even 
the prospect of more immediate self-interest leaves 
his heart cold and unmoved. But the thought of big 
jobs to be tackled, and of staggering needs to be 
met, the vision of a world floundering in the wilder¬ 
ness, longing to find its way out toward some 
promised land, personal, social, industrial, or inter¬ 
national, and desperately needing somebody to be 
for it instead of eyes—it is this which sets his heart 
aglow and makes him ready to go anywhere or do 
anything that will really help. 

Jesus well understood that principle when he 
called upon men to follow him. What was the 
major emphasis of Jesus in his appeal? Surely it 
was not the fear of punishment or the hope of re¬ 
ward. He might well have used these inducements 
had he so desired, for no man realized more keenly 
than did Jesus the fact both of the wretchedness 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


177 


of sin and the blessedness of right living. But 
while he vividly realized, and, indeed, often men¬ 
tioned these things, he did not make them the basis 
of his appeal. Rather his challenge was this: “Come 
with me and I will make you fishers of men. I will 
give you a great task that is challenging and worth 
while. Come with me and I will give you the privi¬ 
lege of being a good Samaritan, to bind up the 
wounds of fellow travelers, and to take them to an 
inn and to meet all their needs. Come wfith me and 
I will give you the opportunity to do unto others 
as you would have them do unto you. Come with 
me and you may give the cup of cold water to the 
thirsty and bread to the hungry and clothing to the 
naked. And you may have the privilege of visiting 
the sick and the prisoners and of fighting the battles 
of needy humanity. Come with me and you may 
become great—not great because many people serve 
you and many possessions are yours, but great be¬ 
cause you become a great servant like your Lord. 
Come with me and play a man’s part and a woman’s 
part in the great program of God for the saving of 
human society—the redemption of the race.” 

That was the major appeal of Jesus, and it struck 
fire in the hearts of men. He relied on that instinc¬ 
tive nobility that would prompt men to prefer sacri¬ 
fice in the service of their fellows rather than to 
gratify even enlightened self-interest. And the re¬ 
sponse which he has secured in these centuries since 
has amply justified that appeal. We are not to 
understand, of course, that Jesus was bent merely 
upon securing a large personal following and that 


178 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


he shrewdly seized upon this method as the most 
effective persuasion. And if to-day, incidentally, 
the same appeal is still by all odds the surest and 
most direct way to get at the heart of youth and 
win a heroic response, it does not follow that the 
church is obliged to invent some idle makeshift of 
a task in order to be armed with the kind of persua¬ 
sion that will win a large following for herself. It 
does not take youth long to see through that sort 
of camouflage. 

With the church to-day, and more particularly 
wdth the Epworth League, it must be even as it was 
with their Lord. We are told that when Jesus “saw 
the multitude he was moved with compassion for 
them, because they were distressed and scattered, as 
sheep not having a shepherd.” The realization of 
their pathetic and desperate need—their individual 
personal needs, and also their collective needs— 
stirred in him a tremendous social sympathy. 
Those multitudes must be ministered to somehow, 
and with his great compassionate nature their bur¬ 
dens became his burdens, their sin his sins, their 
need his need. The task to which he called men was 
no make-believe task trumped up for the occasion, 
to provide them with something to do and to supply 
him with a moving persuasion. It was no picnic- 
holiday affair. It was a facing of the world’s 
realities; it was a matter of life and death. And he 
counted upon man’s inborn capacity for sympathy 
and service as a providential asset for the saving of 
the world’s life. 

The church stands to-day in his stead. It faces 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


179 


the same realities. It is under the same compulsion. 
It is here to perform a mighty mission as a servant 
in behalf of Christ. The world’s statesmen and 
thinkers are more and more seeing in the kind of 
service the church can render their only hope. And 
when the church appeals to men everywhere to en¬ 
list with her, it is only that in her they may find 
their most effective instrument to serve their fellow 
men. 

I. Generating a Social Sympathy 

The dynamic power back of every program of 
effective service is a genuine and a limitless social 
sympathy. No skill of method can atone for lack of 
genuineness here. To have a sincere and moving 
and Christian compassion in one’s heart, is to have 
within oneself the best instructor in the world in 
the art and skill and method of service. Without 
that teacher, the study of all the guidebooks on 
method that have been printed would leave a man 
hopelessly awkward and inefficient. 

There is a good deal of sympathy already in the 
world that comes far short of being either limitless 
or social. Many a man’s capacity for sympathy is 
pretty largely expended on himself. It is amazing 
sometimes how large an amount of perfectly good 
pity a man can waste on his own lot when there are 
so many more worthy objects on which it could be 
spent. Again, it is rather a human thing for us 
all, unless we are on guard, to let our sympathy stop 
with our own immediate family or our circle of per¬ 
sonal acquaintances. On reading a news dispatch 


180 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WOKK 


of a certain train wreck you are greatly agitated. 
A close friend of yours was supposed to be on that 
train, and it is reported that several people have 
been killed. You are in a fever of excitement and 
apprehension until you get the next dispatch giving 
the list of the dead and injured. When you find 
that the name of your friend is not on the list, you 
are immensely relieved, and give scarcely another 
thought to the incident. Several had lost their 
lives, but they were not your relatives. Their 
names you had never heard. They were nothing to 
you. 

A family is reported to be in distress in your 
community. Sickness, unemployment, and misfor¬ 
tune have brought them to the verge of despair. If 
they were personal friends of yours, you would, of 
course, be aroused to action. Would it make any 
difference in the keenness of your interest if you dis¬ 
covered that they belonged to a race or nation that 
differs from your own? Would it have made any 
difference with Jesus? 

Our sympathies are too limited. Men are accus¬ 
tomed to classify themselves according to their simi¬ 
larities. It is natural for the cultured to prefer to 
associate with the cultured, the rich with the rich, 
the poor with the poor, the strong with the strong, 
the weak, with the weak. “Birds of a feather flock 
together.” It is natural for men of one particular 
opinion to be drawn to men of the same opinion, 
that they may flatter one another by complete agree¬ 
ment. It is natural for the same nationality and 
the same race to congregate together. But are we 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


181 


not thereby stunting our sympathies, and depriving 
the race of one of the great means of uplift? 

Paul laid down the principle that the strong were 
to bear the infirmities of the weak. What a mighty 
means of human uplift would be released if the cul¬ 
tured of America would give more attention to the 
sharing of their culture with the uncultured, and if 
those who have enjoyed special privilege would use 
it to benefit the unprivileged, and the rich would 
employ their wealth more freely for the uplift of the 
poor! And what if the immigrants on their arrival 
in this country were not compelled by circumstances 
to gather in little Italys and little Polands and little 
Chinatowns, but had opportunity to come to know 
what real American life was like! 

And our sympathies are not sufficiently social. 
We marvel at the sympathy that Jesus showed for 
individuals, and at the time he gave to ministering 
to individuals. We are filled with wonder that he 
should have given so much time to the woman at the 
well, and that he should have given to her ears some 
of the choicest words he ever spoke, or that he 
should have spent the night with Nicodemus, or that 
he should have gone home to dine with Zacchseus. 
But we forget that Jesus was strangely moved by 
the sight of the crowds. He was not confused by 
their numbers, and he could visualize their personal 
and individual needs; but apparently there were 
other and special needs that the crowd itself pre¬ 
sented. It is significant that they seemed to him to 
be “distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a 
shepherd.’’ 


182 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


What could that have meant? There is a differ¬ 
ence between a vast number of sheep scattered on a 
hillside, with no relationship to each other, and an 
equal number of sheep gathered into a flock. The 
scattered sheep have no sense of unity, no cohesion, 
no relationship. They are particularly vulnerable 
to all the enemies of sheep life. They cannot pro¬ 
tect themselves, and they are not likely to find the 
best pasture. The coming of the shepherd trans¬ 
forms them into a flock, which means unity and pro¬ 
tection and direction. 

So the scattered and distressed multitudes of men 
appealed to the sympathy of Jesus. Of course they 
would be distressed by reason of the fact that they 
were scattered, with no sense of unity and cohesion 
and relationship. There are many deadly enemies 
of men that cannot be conquered by merely indi¬ 
vidual effort. Disease is one. It takes wide group 
cooperation to overcome it. Poverty is another. 
Much may be done by individuals, but there are 
great underlying causes of poverty that can be re¬ 
moved only by group and social action. Social in¬ 
justice is another. War is still another. Before 
these enemies the individual is a helpless victim. 
Until mankind can be brought into group relation¬ 
ship, and can pool their interests in a common 
cause, much of their affliction and suffering and dis¬ 
tress is likely to continue, and these collective 
enemies of mankind will continue triumphant. 

But the warding off of these common enemies is 
but the beginning of the need for that social sym¬ 
pathy that alone can bind men together. Our higher 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


183 


interests are all in common, and our higher achieve¬ 
ments cannot be wrought out in isolation. Just as 
a branch or a twig of a tree cannot find its best life 
if it would live in “splendid isolation” from the rest 
of the tree, just as one part of the body cannot con¬ 
tinue its life if it would “avoid entangling alliances” 
with the rest of the body, even so the lives of men 
are organically related to one another. My family is 
a part of my larger self. Take my family away and 
a part of “me” is gone. My community is a part 
of “myself” and my opinions and attitudes are influ¬ 
enced by the fact that I belong to that community. 
My country is a part of “me,” and enters largely 
into determining what I “am.” 

It must be recognized, of course, that each indi¬ 
vidual of us is at last responsible for our own 
choices, and we have our destiny in our own hands. 
We can take an “anti-social” attitude and endeavor 
to live as we please, bending everything to our own 
advantage, regardless of its effect upon society as a 
whole. In fact, sin, in its essence, is anything that 
is anti-social. When a man takes an attitude or 
follows a course that militates against society, he 
is in effect striking against himself as well as his 
fellow men and God. Right conduct is always so¬ 
cial conduct—an expression of good will to society. 
The great German philosopher Immanuel Kant gave, 
in his famous “categorical imperative,” a splendid 
expression of this social obligation: “I must so act 
that I could at the same time will that my maxim 
should become a universal law.” 

The recognition of our vital relationships to the 


184 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


world of which we are a part, and the desire to 
shape our ideals and conduct in such a way as to 
promote the well-being of this larger whole is what 
we mean by social sympathy. But this kind of sym¬ 
pathy is not something new. We are only beginning 
to catch the significance of our Christian religion 
as viewed from that standpoint. The Bible from 
beginning to end sounds the call to social duty. 
When the Ten Commandments were delivered to 
men, it is probable that they were not entirely new. 
Men already recognized that they should not kill 
and steal and covet and lie. The element of new¬ 
ness, however, was in the fact that these things were 
to be counted as an offense against God and reli¬ 
gion. Thus early was religion and the worship of 
God identified with rightness of conduct toward 
one’s fellowmen. 

The prophets were a unit in their thundering de¬ 
nunciation of any pretense of religion that dared 
couple itself with social wrong and injustice. It has 
often been pointed out that the moment we repeat 
the prayer our Lord taught us, and say “Our 
Father,” at that moment our prayer ceases to be a 
mere private matter between us and God, and there 
must steal into our thought all those others who are 
also his children, and who in their equal right to 
address him as Father, establish their claim to treat¬ 
ment by us as our brothers. And Jesus taught that 
even in the most sacred and solemn moment of our 
worship, when we bring our gift to the altar, even 
there, the thought of our relationship to our fellow 
men must intrude, and that act of worship cannot 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


185 


be sincerely completed, until we have established 
the right relationships with our neighbor. 

A personal, vital Christian experience, an inti¬ 
mate acquaintance with Christ and an enthrone¬ 
ment of him in the life is the greatest known means 
for the generating of a powerful social sympathy. 
And to accomplish that is to win more than half 
the battle in the making of a better world. 

II. Creating a Christian Conscience 

Dr. Henry Sloan Coffin 1 tells of a striking com¬ 
ment on our Christian religion, made to him by one 
to whom it had come as more of a novelty than to 
us. Doctor Coffin was visiting in the Forbidden City, 
in Peking, when one of the secretaries of China’s 
first president said to him: “I often read the sacred 
books of the various great teachers. They all seem 
to me to commend much the same virtues—courage, 
unselfishness, courtesy, loyalty. And I have asked 
myself what is the difference between your great 
Teacher and the others. It seems to me that lie has 
the poiver to create a more delicate conscience” 
This is a significant tribute. It singles out one of 
the most important contributions that Christianity 
has made and is making toward world betterment. 

To generate social sympathy is most essential, but 
is by no means sufficient in itself. The intermediate 
and vital step between social sympathy and action 
is the sensitizing and training of conscience. The 
sympathy which a mother feels for her child will 

Coffin, In a Day of Social Rebuilding , p. 23. Used hy 
permission of Yale University Press, publishers. 



186 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


quicken her eagerness to study every condition that 
affects her child’s life, and will enable her to de¬ 
tect far more readily and accurately than any dis¬ 
interested party could possibly do the factors and 
influences that make or mar his well being. 

A widespread social sympathy forms a fruitful 
soil in which a sensitive public conscience can be 
grown. And the force of public conscience, once 
it is aroused, is known to everyone. There was a 
time when slavery flourished as an institution, and 
was even defended by good men with copious quota¬ 
tions from Scripture. But a few men with a genuine 
social sympathy grew a conscience sensitive to the 
iniquitous wrong being done to fellow human beings. 
Agitation became widespread, and a public con¬ 
science was developed. When that was accom¬ 
plished, it was only a question of time when the 
institution of slavery would be done away. It was 
largely the power of the public conscience that 
achieved woman suffrage and the destruction of the 
legalized liquor traffic. There is not a wrong nor 
an evil anywhere in the world, however firmly en¬ 
trenched, that could withstand the onslaught of 
public conscience, sufficiently aroused and properly 
trained. 

The great need of the hour is the arousing and 
training of the public conscience regarding condi¬ 
tions that affect public welfare to-day. At the heart 
of the welfare of the community is the welfare of the 
home. Plain facing of facts discloses many condi¬ 
tions that are undermining a wholesome home life. 
“Bad housing . . . saps its physical strength, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


187 


destroys its moral standards, and depletes its spir¬ 
itual energy.” 2 The modern city is a great open 
sore, with its tenements, its overcrowding, its lack 
of fresh air. Ignorance of household management, 
and low ideals are frequently a means of defeating 
the higher ministry of the home. The modern di¬ 
vorce mill grinds out its appalling daily grist, crush¬ 
ing homes and robbing multitudes of children of 
their rightful chance in life. Here is a great de¬ 
mand for an aroused conscience, that every safe¬ 
guard possible be thrown about the home. For “the 
Christian family . . . may become the great re¬ 
generating force to Christianize community life. It 
is the fulcrum of social Christianity.” 3 

Closely allied with this need is that of guarantee¬ 
ing to the child his fullest chance, for “in childhood 
lie hidden all the possibilities for the improvement 
of mankind.” Yet where is there a community, in 
country or city, where every danger has been re¬ 
moved and every right safeguarded? A certain 
newspaper cartoon shows a small girl coming out of 
a city alley. About the entrance lurks a throng of 
evil creatures—vice, disease, imbecility, tuberculosis, 
drink, poverty, cruelty, dissipation. 4 The inscrip¬ 
tion reads, “Give the Child a Chance.” Has the 
child in your community his rightful chance at 
health, at fresh air, at clean, wholesome play and 
recreation, at education, at religious instruction, 
and the spiritual life ? Are there those in your com- 

2 Ward-Edwards, Christianizing Community Life , p. 24. 

a Ibid ., p. 29. 

4 Ibid ., p. 36. 



188 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


munity still who persist in looking upon the child 
as an economic asset instead of a bundle of spir¬ 
itual possibilities? The tight for the abolition of 
child labor is not yet completely won in America. 

Neither is the conscience of the public sufficiently 
awake to the value of the child as the greatest “crop” 
that a community can produce. How often this 
“crop” receives the least attention of all. “Men who 
will go hundreds of miles to attend a stock show, 
remain indifferent to all agencies that aim to de¬ 
velop the highest and best in youth. A fine horse 
will get twice the attention that a fine son will get. 
. . . The awakened community conscience is go¬ 

ing to ask why more boys and girls are not going 
to college; why so many are leaving the little home 
town to find work in the city; why so many are 
drifting into life unprepared; why the recreational 
life of the community seems to tend toward the de¬ 
structive and not the constructive forms. . . . An 
awakened community conscience is going to find 
ways to direct the life of youth, not merely to criti¬ 
cize it. The welfare of the young life—moral, spir¬ 
itual, physical—is going to take precedence over 
every other consideration.” 5 

Developing a conscience as to home life and the 
rights of childhood leads one at once into the midst 
of other great problems of the day. One of these is 
poverty. The want of sufficient income makes 
proper home conditions impossible. It is estimated 
that even in prosperous United States at least one 
tenth^of the population is not adequately fed, 

°Smith, The Young Christian and His Community, p. 177. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


189 


clothed and sheltered, according to the lowest stand¬ 
ards. “They live on the run-down farms, in the 
hovels of small towns, in the dark rooms of the 
cities, in the shacks and shanties on the edges of the 
suburbs. The ills of the industrial order heap up 
on their lives. The competitive system ruthlessly 
casts aside their inefficiency. Greed strengthens it¬ 
self out of their necessities. They must pay the 
high cost of American living with all its inclusion 
of swollen profits. Everywhere the poor live with 
the fear of hunger in their eyes, with the shadow of 
want upon their doorsteps, with dread in their souls 
of what poverty may finally do to the morals of their 
children. Prosperity even in prosperous times is 
an idle word to them. They live from hand to 
mouth. Any of the ordinary emergencies of life, 
such as unemployment, sickness, or a funeral, would 
throw them down below the poverty line, and 
change them into dependents and paupers.” 6 

Let it be granted that much of this poverty may 
be due to laziness, inefficiency, immorality, or many 
other personal causes, there still remains the fact 
that much of it is preventable. It is splendid to en¬ 
gage in relief work, but merely to carry a basket 
to a poor family or to give a hand-out at the door 
may not be the real thing that is needed at all. To 
give the kind of constructive relief that will lift a 
family up the scale into the level of self-support is 
a service that will pay as much greater dividends in 
the long run as it takes of greater effort and time to 
perform. 


e Ward-Edwards, Christianizing Community Life, p. 69. 



190 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Sickness is “the overhanging horror for vast 
numbers of people,” and for multitudes of families 
would be sufficient to push them over the line into 
poverty. Yet how much of sickness is preventable! 
It is estimated that more than six hundred thousand 
lives are needlessly sacrificed every year in the 
United States from diseases which modern science 
knows how to prevent. A college community re¬ 
cently lost from typhoid fever one of its strongest 
professors—a man whose influence on many genera¬ 
tions of college men and women was incalculable. 
That community had knowledge enough and money 
enough to protect itself against typhoid, but it did 
not have religion enough to tackle the job. Coopera¬ 
tion with the public health officials in enforcing 
laws, and in cleaning up the community and dis¬ 
tributing literature on the care of health would do 
much to prevent poverty. 

The industrial problem must be faced in this con¬ 
nection too. The conditions under which men have 
to work, and especially the working conditions for 
women and young people, have a vital bearing on 
the welfare of the community. The number of hours 
per day, the wages received, the care given those 
who have suffered accident or injury, or have fallen 
victims of “occupational diseases,” all are questions 
that in many places demand consideration not only 
by the workers themselves but by every Christian 
citizen who has a genuine social sympathy. We 
need a new conscience in this matter. Religion 
should not be considered “a device to make men 
satisfied with injustice.” Our goal should be the 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


191 


bringing in of the day when every phase of life will 
be brought under the dominion of Jesus Christ, 
even though that may mean some changes in the 
present order of things. Did not they accuse Paul 
and his fellow workers of turning the world up side 
down? Our job is to turn the world right side up. 

But one cannot go far in the study of these ques¬ 
tions without realizing that he must work through 
government—the organized government of town¬ 
ship, city, county, State, and nation. The kind of 
officials we elect, the sort of laws that are placed on 
the statute books and the way they are enforced, 
may have more to do for the good or the ill of the 
community than the average citizen realizes. One 
of the greatest needs in making a better country and 
world is a stirring of conscience regarding the re¬ 
sponsibilities of citizenship. That word “citizen” 
is one of the richest words in our social vocabulary. 
To be a really Christian citizen is to fulfill in the 
highest sense our social obligations. Yet it is the 
apathy and the ignorance and indifference on the 
part of the average citizen, who allows himself to 
be too completely absorbed in his own affairs, that 
accounts for a major part of bad government, graft, 
and corrupt politics. Too often, the “good” citizen 
considers active interest in politics to be beneath 
his dignity, and the consequence is that the control 
of affairs is abandoned to the hands of men whose 
interests are chiefly selfish. 

A better-informed and a more conscientious 
citizenship is a necessity if a government such as 
ours is to endure. Roger Babson urges that educa- 


192 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


tion in history and civics is one of the great needs 
of our educational system. In the days when no 
instruction was given in government, and all men 
were about equally ignorant, it was natural that 
all men should have been given the vote, irrespec¬ 
tive of their knowledge. A continuation of this 
principle, however, would mean the ultimate down¬ 
fall of any government. Equal and universal 
suffrage is something to aim for, but as at present 
directed it is not successful. The idea that every 
man and woman be allowed to vote on government 
problems of which they know nothing is absolutely 
wrong. As we will probably never take a step back¬ 
ward and take away the universal vote, the only 
alternative is to educate the whole body of citizens 
along the lines of constitutional government and 
history, in order that they may exercise the vote 
sanely and intelligently. 

The time to do that is in youth. There is a new 
crop of voters coming of age every new election. 
What an opportunity to create a Christian con¬ 
science as to public duty, among this splendid an¬ 
nual crowd of first voters, and give them the incen¬ 
tive of fitting themselves to be intelligent and 
public-spirited citizens! 

III. Translating Sympathy and Conscience into 
Deed 

Sympathy and conscience are to be cultivated, not 
for the purpose of supplying us with a thrilling and 
satisfying emotion, but for the purpose of becoming 
the driving force behind deed and action. This 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


193 


translation into deed is the final test of their 
genuineness and value. 

Well-wishing is not enough in itself. Good im¬ 
pulses are of value only as they become good deeds. 
What is needed for the making of a better world 
is a race of men who do not only develop tremendous 
social impulses, but who can turn these impulses 
into deed with as little of loss and waste as possible. 

The parable of the good Samaritan is always 
pertinent at this point. Doctor Boreham, the bril¬ 
liant essayist and preacher, makes an interesting 
and clever comment on this parable. He is illustrat¬ 
ing how often our first thoughts are generous and 
unselfish, and then our miserable selfish second 
thoughts come along and slay the first, and the deed 
is never carried out. He describes vividly the four 
travelers who made their way one by one down the 
Bloody Pass, or short cut between Jerusalem and 
Jericho. But the particular one of these travelers 
who claims our attention is the third, the Levite. 
Journeying along the path, he hears a moan from 
an unfortunate traveler, lying on the other side of 
the road. He turns aside and crosses the road, to 
the sufferer’s relief, and then you see him pause. 
That pause spoiled everything. At that instant his 
second thoughts pounced upon their prey. When 
the Levite heard the moan and turned aside he really 
meant to help the man. A generous impulse had 
been born in his breast. His second thoughts, know¬ 
ing of this birth, vowed that the noble resolution 
should be slain. They watched their chance, and 
w T hen they saw him pause half way across the road, 


194 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


they instantly tore the kindly impulse from his 
grasp and with merciless hand, killed it on the spot. 

What a vivid description that is of a multitude of 
experiences that have come to all of us! We are 
confronted by some need or opportunity for service, 
and there immediately wells up in our hearts a 
kindly impulse, a good, generous first thought that 
inspires us to sacrificial act. But no sooner is that 
impulse born in our hearts than immediately this 
cut-throat gang of second thoughts leaps upon its 
prey—thoughts of self-interest—conservative, sel¬ 
fish, unkindly second thoughts, that slay this gener¬ 
ous impulse before it has had time to get into action. 
And the strange thing about such experiences is 
that often these generous first thoughts become a 
kind of subtle narcotic. They lull one into a feel¬ 
ing of self-congratulation, and he credits himself 
with being a pretty fine fellow, forgetting that his 
kindly impulses were slain by second thoughts and 
never accomplished anything. 

The good Samaritan, whose generous first impulse 
was immediately allowed to pass over into a deed of 
kindly service, is a picture of the habitual practice 
of Jesus himself. It was never his custom to allow 
his good impulses to spend themselves in futile emo¬ 
tions, but he at once found some effective channel 
for their expression in deed. He ministered to the 
sick, the blind, the deaf, the hungry. He healed the 
mind sick and the soul sick, and was always eager 
to give vision of those moral and spiritual ideals 
that constituted the deepest and most desperate 
need of men. And he was constantly urging men 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


195 


to the same practice. “This do and thou shalt live.” 
“Why call ye me Lord, Lord and DO not the things 
that I say?” The son who glibly said, “I go, sir,” 
but went not could not compare with the other son 
who, even though a little surly about it at first, 
nevertheless went and did the thing he was told to 
do. 

The task of the Epworth League is not only to 
inspire generous impulses in the heart of youth, but 
to help him discover practical and intelligent chan¬ 
nels through which he can carry these impulses into 
deeds. 

1. In seeking the various ways in which service 
may be rendered, the Epworth League needs to re¬ 
member that the first and foremost contribution he 
can make to the common welfare is a Christian 
character, of integrity, honesty, and trustworthi¬ 
ness. Society is built of individual units. No com¬ 
munity can be better than the individual citizens 
that make it up. You cannot make good cloth out 
of rotten fabric. You cannot build a strong build¬ 
ing out of crumbling brick. The chief social con¬ 
tribution, after all, is the making of a stalwart and 
dependable citizenship. The work of the third vice- 
president is therefore seen to be one at heart with 
the first vice-president, and with the church itself- 
It is for him to be in himself a worthy unit for the 
building of society, and to give himself to the task 
of helping to build such other units. 

2. He will seek to express his social sympathy 
through community service. Whether he lives in the 
country, the town, or the city, he is a part of his 


196 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


community, and as such has a definite respon¬ 
sibility. Any man who is willing to live in his com¬ 
munity and share in its benefits, without making the 
slightest effort to help solve its problems, is accept¬ 
ing public charity. “To accept membership in a 
community is to accept responsibility for the destiny 
of that community.” 

Whatever is done for a community, however, must 
be adapted to the special needs of that community. 
Roy L. Smith outlines the following suggestions for 
planning a community program: 

First, never proceed upon any plan for com¬ 
munity service without exercising great care 
to get all facts that may bear on the case. 

Second, having gathered the facts, analyze them 
and discover the actual needs of your community. 

Third, having your facts, and having decided as 
to the character of your community needs, set about 
to devise some remedy for the conditions which 
shall take the facts into careful account, and which 
shall be distinctly Christian in its purpose and 
method. 

An outline of questions to guide in such a study 
of your community may be found in the Central 
Office Leaflet on that subject. , 1 

Some one has defined social service as “The appli¬ 
cation of Christian principles to social life, and the 
realization of the Christian ideal in human society.” 
It is that kind of service that needs to be done in 
the community. 

3. He will seek to serve through the channel of 
the government, in county, State, and nation. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


197 


Though it has taken long centuries to bring about 
the realization of that ideal, the great business of 
the government at present is human welfare. It is 
a profitable exercise now and then to sit down and 
make an inventory of the common, everyday bless¬ 
ings of life as we Americans know it, and discover 
how large a number of them are secured for us and 
guaranteed to us by the government. To see that 
the right kind of officials are nominated and elected 
in the first place, to “back up” every official who is 
making an honest attempt to serve the public inter¬ 
est, and to “jack up” everyone who is not, to keep 
informed concerning every issue that is of interest 
to public welfare, to help create sentiment for the 
right kind of laws, and then to keep those laws one¬ 
self, and lend every- assistance in seeing to it that 
others keep them, are some of the plain duties of 
every Christian citizen. 

The Epworth Leaguers of California have fur¬ 
nished a striking demonstration of what young peo¬ 
ple can do in the interest of good government. For 
seventy years or more the Christian people of’that 
State had k^pt up a fight for prohibition, but had 
found it an uphill fight. The vote of a Constitu¬ 
tional Prohibition Amendment in 1914 was lost by 
a majority of 169,245. A similar election was lost 
in 1920 by a majority of 65,062. While, of course, 
they had prohibition by federal amendment, there 
was no State law to back it up. Then, in 1921, con¬ 
trary to every prediction, a dry bill known as the 
Wright Law was introduced, passed both house and 
senate, and upon the signature of Governor 


198 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Stephens, became a law. The enemy said, “We will 
take it to the people by referendum, and the people 
will kill it.” 

A royal fight was on. There seemed little hope of 
winning. But every dry force joined together to 
beat the “bootleggers’ referendum.” A careful cam¬ 
paign was planned by the Anti-Saloon League, 
which developed slowly through the spring and sum¬ 
mer of 1922. While the church people generally 
seemed to be pretty well aroused, there seemed to be 
unexpected apathy and indifference in many sec¬ 
tions that gave the leaders no little concern. 

In September, Dr. A. H. Briggs, superintendent 
of the Anti-Saloon League, called “Jim” Stinchcomb 
—that much-loved League leader of northern Cali¬ 
fornia, whose untimely death in July, 1923, was 
mourned by Leaguers everywhere—into his office, 
and said, “I want to see you about dynamite.” He 
then outlined a plan whereby the young people of 
the Epworth League and other Young People’s so¬ 
cieties might be enlisted, and supply the fire and 
enthusiasm which had been lacking in their cam¬ 
paign. “Jim” was to lead in this phase of the cam¬ 
paign. His final commission was, “Here is some 
expense money. Take authority, use good sense, 
begin now.” 

And “Jim” did begin, and he saw it through. He 
arranged for a series of demonstrations in various 
centers through northern California, combining the 
forces of the Epworth League, Christian Endeavor, 
and B. Y. P. U. Gigantic parades were held, some¬ 
times tying up traffic for two hours. Floats carried 


FOE YOUNG PEOPLE 


19fr 


such slogans as these: “The Wright Law Is the 
Eight Law,” “Christian Endeavor Stands Square 
for the Wright Act,” “No Good Citizen AYill Break 
Down the Constitution,” “Down with the Boot¬ 
legger,” etc. Great mass meetings were held, ad¬ 
dressed by young people, debates were conducted, 
and everywhere, a most profound impression was 
made. 

On November 7, 1922, the date of the election, 
young people helped to get out a large vote, and 
after the polls closed, hundreds were at their posts 
of duty, watching the count, and reporting to the 
headquarters of the Anti-Saloon League. When the 
final count was in, it was found that the Wright 
Law had won a clear victory with thirty-four thou¬ 
sand majority. 

Doctor Briggs, writing of it afterward, said that 
while many other agencies had a big share, and 
should be given due and proper credit, yet among 
them all, none had a more signal part than the 
young people in winning this almost impossible 
battle. “The young folks blended in a beautiful 
way practical politics with the politics of idealism. 
They brought to the campaign what our boys gave 
to the Allies in the World War—the resourceful 
dash and audacity, the unwhipable spirit of Ameri¬ 
can youth. Hitherto the young folks had given to 
political campaigns unorganized good will. This 
time organized outlawry in California faced the 
organized good will of the Christian young people. 
It was a flank attack aud the impact jarred the 
enemy. . , . The Christian young people of 


200 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


almost any community can, if they will, gain right 
of way for their ideals. . . . When the young 

giant stands up in his beauty and strength, the 
battle is all but won.” 

William E. Rothe, the third vice-president of the 
California Conference League, was elected district 
attorney in Butte County and presented his first 
case of violation of the Eighteenth Amendment be¬ 
fore the Superior court in January, 1923. He 
handled his case so well that he secured conviction 
on the second ballot. The judge in open court com¬ 
plimented the district attorney, and said that it was 
the first conviction of its kind in that court. 

James McGiffin, Jim Stinchcomb’s successor as 
field secretary of the California Conference Epw^orth 
League, writes of another interesting bit of Third- 
Department news as a sequel. “In a certain county, 
a young Epworth Leaguer was elected District At¬ 
torney on a Christian platform. His first thirty- 
one cases were bootlegging cases, and he secured 
thirty-one convictions. The field of service in the 
Third Department is unlimited.” 

4. The Epworth League needs to remember 
finally, however, that among all the channels for 
real social service, the church has been the great 
mother from which they have sprung, and still re¬ 
mains the greatest channel of usefulness in the com¬ 
munity and the world. It was not so many cen¬ 
turies ago when the church had little com¬ 
petition in this field, and practically all serv¬ 
ice that was done at all was done by the 
church. Now, there are scores and hundreds 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


201 


of agencies that are at work for human betterment, 
many of them entirely apart from the church. But 
the church has been largely the inspiration back of 
them, even though that fact is often forgotten. 

John M. Versteeg 7 very pertinently applies the 
following parable to the church. The birds once 
agreed to have a king, and they resolved that the 
bird which flew the highest should wear the crown. 
The shrewd wren, reckoning that the strength of 
the eagle would prevail, perched itself on the eagle’s 
back, and when the mighty bird reached its last 
point of ascension, up went the wren into the 
heights still beyond, and so became king. What 
worthy humanitarian movement, now acclaiming 
greatness, can be mentioned that does not owe very 
much of its present standing to the pioneering and 
the strength and inspiration of the Christian 
Church? 

While we rejoice at the allies that have come to 
our aid in helping to make the world a happier and 
better place, it still remains that the church stands 
as the great master servant among them all. It 
supplies the inspiration and vitality for the rest, 
and in itself, is performing such a rich and varied 
ministry that if it were all known, the cheap and 
shallow criticisms often flung at the church would 
be impossible, and increasing multitudes would 
choose her as their channel of service. 

We emphasize again that the Epworth League in 
its eagerness to serve will seek the opportunities 

7 Versteeg, The Modern Meaning of Church Membership , 

p. 23. 



202 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


offered by the church first of all, and will turn an 
increasing stream of ambitious and loyal young 
Christians into the various service activities of the 
church. 

A pastor who has the backing of such a group 
will feel that he is ready "to specialize in the wholly 
impossible,” and no task that needs to be done will 
be too hard to tackle. I have been deeply touched 
more than once in my ministry, at some trying time, 
when the work was particularly heavy or some 
battle was on, to receive a little note just as I went 
into the pulpit on a Sunday morning, reading some¬ 
thing like this, "The young people are praying for 
you and backing you to the limit,” aiid signed by a 
half a dozen of them. I confess that after reading 
such a message, I had some little difficulty in mak¬ 
ing out the first hymn through the mist that 
strangely filled my eyes, and my voice may have 
been a bit husky as we began the service. But there 
was a tumult of joy in my heart, and an irrepres¬ 
sible assurance that so long as the church has the 
leading of God and the backing of such a noble 
group, the "gates of Hades shall not prevail against 
it.” 


IV. The Third Vice-President 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods . 

1. His Task. 

(1) To inspire Epworthians with the Christian 
spirit of service. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


203 


(2) To make them know that religion is not 

merely a matter of inward emotion and ex¬ 
perience, but of deed. 

(3) To afford Leaguers an outlet for expression 

of this spirit. 

(4) To make an actual contribution in service to 

the aged, sick, and needy, to the community 
and to the nation. 

2. His Tools. 

(1) Efficient Epworthian—chapter on social serv¬ 

ice. 

(2) Leaflets from the Central Office—especially: 

“Self-Starters for the Third Department,” 
“Principles and Practice,” 

“Finding the Facts in Any Community,” 
“The Booth Festival; Its Organization and 
Program,” etc. 

(3) Good books dealing with the larger meaning 

of Social Service, such as: 

A. G. Bromley Oxnam: Eyes Front! 

B. Roy L. Smith: The Young Christian and 

His Community. ^ 

C. Ward-Edwards: Christianizing Com¬ 

munity Life. 

D. Ralph Felton: The Epworth League in 

Rural Community Service. 

E. Schreckengast: Christian Citizenship. 

F. Bishop McConnell: Christian Citizen¬ 

ship. 


204 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


G. Clarence True Wilson: The Divine 

Right of Democracy. 

H. Kirby Page: Christianity and Economic 

Problems. 

3. Bis Methods. 

(1) Organization of the Department—The third 

vice-president may well organize the work 
of the department into four committees as 
follows: 

A. Mercy and Help. 

B. Relief and Institutions. 

C. Community Interests. 

D. Civic Matters. 

(2) Methods of Work. 

The best brief outline of Third-Depart¬ 
ment activities that has yet been published 
is to be found in the little pamphlet Self- 
Starters for the Third Department, gotten 
out by the Central Office of the Epworth 
League. The activities there outlined are 
as follows: 

(A) In the Church. 

(For Committee on “Mercy and Help.”) 
Sick 

Flowers. 

Letters. 

Greeting Cards. 

Calls. 

Shut-Ins 

Letters and Cards of Greeting. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


205 


Calls. 

Sunday School Papers. 

Typed Copy of Sermon. 

Song Service Conducted by a Group 
of Epworthians. 

Christmas or Easter Carols. 

New Year Calls. 

May Baskets. 

Birthday Cards. 

Provide a Wheel Chair. 

Automobile Rides (to and from 
church). 

Strangers 

Calls. 

Invitations to various Church and 
League Activities. (Cooperate with 
Secretary in this.) 

“Escort” committee to call for 
strangers and take them to League 
and Church services and socials. 

Cooperation with the secretary to 
maintain a live constituency roll. 

Assist minister in obtaining church 
letters of newcomers to parish. 

Indifferent. 

Seek them out. 

Give them a part in service. 

(B) In the Community. 

(For the Committee on “Community 

Interests.”) 

Know your community. Are the in- 


206 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


dustrial conditions Christian? What re¬ 
forms are needed? Make a Community 
Survey. 

Urge upon your members their respon¬ 
sibility for service. 

Aid in the promotion of health. 
Cooperate with helpful agencies. 

Rouse public opinion against degrad* 
ing community influences. 

Act as big “brother” or “sister” to 
Juvenile Court ward. 

Promote friendship with young for¬ 
eigners. 

(3) Christian Citizenship. 

(For the Committee on “Civic Matters.”) 
Classes for first voters. 

First voters’ night. 

Keep chapter informed on legislation of 
interest—local, State, national. 

Send petitions to legislators in name of 
chapter. 

Emphasize need of church people’s vote 
—especially in primaries. 

Give attention to law enforcement—par¬ 
ticularly as it relates to the Eighteenth 
Amendment. 

Encourage international good will. 

(4) Work for Institutions. 

(For the Committee on “Relief and Institu¬ 
tions”) 

Supplies—Food, clothing. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


207 


Visits—Hold devotional meetings. 

Give programs (cooperate with the 
Fourth Department). 

Send flowers; books and magazines; re¬ 
freshments for a party; toys for orphan¬ 
ages and mission schools. 

(5) Miscellaneous. 

Have church nursery during preaching 
service. 

Supply a “helper” who will care for chil¬ 
dren while mother is away. * 

Cooperate on District Booth Festival. 

“Golden Age Sunday.” 

Distribute “Good Will Industry” bags. 

Emphasize need of Sabbath observance. 

Conduct Social Service and Citizenship 
Classes. 

On Mother’s Day decorate the graves of 
mothers of former Epworthians—then 
write and tell these Epworthians what you 
have done. 

CHAPTER VI 

The Third Department : The Task of Putting 

Social Sympathy into Deed 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 
Introduction: 

1. There is a native instinct in the heart of youth 
that makes spontaneous response to the appeal of 
the heroic in service. 


208 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


2. If the church is to rally youth to its standards, 
it must appeal to this God implanted instinct. 

3. She must count upon this element in youth if 
she is to be able to meet the desperate needs of the 
world in this hour. 

I. Generating a Social Sympathy. 

1. Need for a genuine and limitless social sym¬ 

pathy. 

(1) Much of our sympathy is too limited. 

(2) Much of it is not social. 

2. A limitless social sympathy is needed. 

(1) To ward off enemies of mankind that 
cannot be combated by individuals 
alone. 

(2) To secure the higher good of society. 

3. This kind of sympathy is generated by means 

of religion. 

(1) Taught throughout the Old and New 

Testaments. 

(2) Urged and exemplified by Jesus. 

(3) Normal outgrowth of a Christian ex¬ 

perience. 

II. Creating a Christian Conscience. 

1. Social sympathy is soil in which it is grown. 

2. Christian conscience a most powerful weapon. 

3. Great need of the hour is arousing and train¬ 

ing of public conscience regarding matters of 
public welfare. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


200 


(1) Making possible a wholesome home 

life. 

(2) Safeguarding the rights and chance of 

childhood. 

(3) Overcoming preventable poverty. 

(4) Conserving the public health. 

(5) Solving the industrial problem. 

(6) Developing a more conscientious 

citizenship. 

4. Importance of period of youth in training of 
conscience. 

III. Translating Sympathy and Conscience into 
Deed. 

Importance of putting sympathy and conscience 
into deed with as little delay and waste as pos¬ 
sible. Channels through which these deeds may 
flow: 

(1) Through an upright Christian character, 

the essential unit of a good social order. 

(2) Through Community Service. 

(3) Through good government in community, 

county, State, and nation. 

(4) Through the Church—the greatest social 

servant. 

IV. The Third Vice-President. 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 


210 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


(1) Organization of the Department. 

(2) Methods of Work (Self Starters for the 

Third Department). 

(A) In the Church. 

(B) In the Community. 

(C) Christian Citizenship. 

(D) Work for Institutions. 

(E) Miscellaneous. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. Are your church and your chapter sufficiently 
appealing to the service motive in seeking to enlist 
new recruits for membership? 

2. What is meant by “social sympathy” ? In what 
respect does it differ from any other sympathy? 

3. Why is a social sympathy needed in such a day 
as this? 

4. Discuss the relationship of the religion of 
Jesus Christ to the generating of social sympathy. 
Can you imagine a genuine Christian being with¬ 
out social sympathy? 

5. What are some of the questions in your com¬ 
munity on which your Leaguers need a more sensi¬ 
tive conscience? 

6. Does your Epworth League offer an effective 
channel for the service of the community? 

7. Study the outline of Third-Department activi¬ 
ties at the close of the chapter. Do you think of 
others that might be added? Which of these sug¬ 
gested items of service should be included in your 
League program that are not now being done? 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


211 


8. In wh^t ways could your Third Department co¬ 
operate with other agencies in church and com¬ 
munity in social service? 

9. What kind of young person should be selected 
for third vice-president? 


212 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


CHAPTER VII 

THE FOURTH DEPARTMENT: THE TASK OF 
TURNING LEISURE INTO PROFIT 

One of the greatest of gifts from the hand of God 
is the privilege of work. It is a blessing and not a 
curse. The desire to escape from a fair share of it 
is not normal to the healthy, red-blooded man. 

Another of God’s rich gifts is a proper amount of 
leisure. Men who work hard while they work need 
something more than a mere time for rest. They 
need time to cultivate human interests, to make love 
to their wives and sweethearts, to play with their 
children, to learn to make good citizens, to take part 
in public affairs, and to develop the finer things of 
the spiritual life. 

A good case could be made out for work as the 
great factor in an advancing civilization. A good 
case could be made out likewise for the part which 
leisure has played in achieving the same end. Both 
are necessary. A proper balancing of the two and a 
turning of both to the best account in the same indi¬ 
viduals is an essential ideal in a just and fair world. 

Such a fair distribution of work and leisure, how¬ 
ever, has not always been made. The painting, the 
sculpture, the poetry, the philosophy, the sciences 
and arts of ancient Greece and Rome that have so 
enriched the world would probably never have been 
produced but for the privilege of leisure on the part 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


213 


of those who produced them. But their leisure to 
thus advance civilization was purchased at a fear¬ 
ful price. For the hard work of the times was done 
by the slaves, who comprised the bulk of the popula¬ 
tion. 

We now recognize that such a price is too great. 
Slavery cannot be justified, even though some perma¬ 
nent benefits have been derived from the system. It 
has taken mankind centuries to work out a social 
order whereby the necessary work of the world will 
be done without any man being a slave to any other 
man, and yet at the same time having the needed 
leisure for life’s higher values. 

The problem is not entirely solved yet. Some have 
more leisure than is good for them, and some have 
more work than they should. So long as any man 
is compelled to work twelve hours a day and seven 
days a week, while others are living in virtual idle¬ 
ness on the fruit of some one else’s toil, we scarcely 
dare lay claim to a fair distribution of work and 
leisure. The fight for a shorter working day, up to 
a certain point, is a Christian fight. It has been 
proved conclusively that too long hours and over¬ 
work are injurious not only to health but also to 
morals. They leave men jaded and apathetic. They 
keep men so occupied in making a living that they 
do not have time to make a life. Raymond Robins 
says that when he worked twelve hours a day in a 
coal mine, the only thing he wanted to do with his 
evenings was to spend them in a saloon with the 
boys, and throw two or three beers under his belt 
and forget that lie was a dog. 


214 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


The battle for a shorter working day, however, is 
rapidly being won. In many industries, the eight- 
hour day prevails. The universal use of labor-saving 
machinery and the better organization of work have 
greatly reduced the necessary hours of hard labor. 
And the end is not yet. Greater reductions still 
may be looked for. The result is that never perhaps 
in the history of the world have men on the average 
enjoyed as much leisure as now. Never have they 
had so much spare time on their hands. 

The crowd of youth now in the Epworth League, 
who to-morrow will be doing the world’s work, will 
be dowered with a greater amount of leisure than 
any generation that has yet lived. It is entirely 
possible that not only their own fate but even that 
of civilization may be wrapped up in the question 
as to what they will do with it. 

I. Leisure: Asset or Liability? 

To merely shorten hours of labor and give men a 
degree of leisure will not automatically make them 
good or develop the higher life. It affords oppor¬ 
tunity for that life to develop, but it is an oppor¬ 
tunity that may be utilized in many forms of harm¬ 
ful and degrading idleness. Without wise guidance 
an abundance of leisure may very easily become a 
liability rather than an asset. 

The statement has been made that during the 
Great War a few days spent in Paris on leave were 
often more harmful and disastrous to the men than 
an equal period spent in the trenches. In the days 
before prohibition factory managers were compelled 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


215 


to expect a depleted working force and only a frac¬ 
tion of the normal output for a considerable period 
after every holiday. The fact that the war is now 
over and that we are living under the Volstead 
dispensation does not by any means remove the 
danger of misused leisure. “Satan finds mischief 
still for idle hands to do.” 

Some employers in industry have dared to use 
that fact as an argument for long working hours. 
“The twelve-hour day is a necessity,” they have 
sometimes declared. “Cut down the working day, 
and* the men will waste their time and money in 
dissipation.” They would solve the misuse of lei¬ 
sure by taking away the leisure. Fortunately, that 
argument has come now to be understood for what 
it is—a pious humbug underneath which was hid¬ 
ing a greed for bigger dividends rather than a 
genuine interest in the welfare of the men. 

But while the acquiring of surplus time, as well 
as of surplus energy and surplus money, are to be 
rejoiced in, they bring with them serious respon¬ 
sibility. The church must teach men how to use 
them in a Christian fashion for the advancement of 
the Kingdom, or they may constitute a real menace. 

There is plenty of evidence from history of the 
deadly liability of the misused surplus. It is said 
that when Attila, the Hun, with his hordes of bar¬ 
barians, came sweeping down over the plains of 
Italy, he demanded as a ransom from the Roman 
senators the surrender of all their gold, silver, and 
jewels, and the emancipation of every slave in the 
empire. 


216 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


"What is there left to us?” wailed the degenerate 
Romans. 

"I leave to you your souls,” was the reply. Yet to 
that corrupt and degenerate age that was equivalent 
to nothing. There had been a time when their souls 
were their wealth, when the|r sons were frugal and 
industrious and simple in habits and life. Such 
fundamental character brought on their great period 
of glory, the period of art and letters, of the de¬ 
velopment of civil law, and the extension of an 
empire whose fingers touched the ends of the earth. 

But when wealth began to pour in from every 
corner of the empire, and each new conquest added 
its quota of slaves, the era of surplus of time and 
money arrived. Had they been wise enough to make 
proper use of it, their glory might not have faded. 
But not knowing how to use it, it was their undoing. 
Social disease and decay set in. The old staunch 
qualities of character crumbled. Having lost the 
art of making life, it is not surprising that they 
lost the art of making statues and buildings and 
laws or even of defending their treasures. And 
when Attila, the "Scourge of God,” essayed to take 
away their money and their leisure, they had noth¬ 
ing left. The crumbling Coliseum, it has been well 
said, is an impressive monument to a fallen civiliza¬ 
tion—a civilization that never learned how properly 
to conserve its surplus time, money, and energy. 

In these days when America is coming into posses¬ 
sion of greater surplus of these things than we ever 
have known, the fate of these ancient civilizations 
may well cause us to pause for. reflection. The 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


217 


destiny of our own civilization may be determined 
by the use we make of our leisure. It is the church’s 
great undeveloped resource. To fortify men against 
the temptation involved therein, and to make use of 
it for morally constructive purposes is the great 
problem of the day. To capture and use for Christ 
the spare time, money, and energy of America is one 
of the church’s major responsibilities. 

II. Turning Leisure into Profit 

There is an increasing multitude of men and 
women who make it their business to capitalize the 
leisure of the people for financial gain. They are 
working night and day to turn leisure into com¬ 
mercial profit, and are in danger of making a bad 
mess of it. The call is therefore all the more in¬ 
sistent that the church awake to her task of turning 
leisure into a higher kind of profit. It is not enough 
to merely avoid the menace of misused leisure. The 
call is rather to discover in it a rich asset for the 
kingdom of God, and to utilize it to the full. How 
much can be done to change the habits of an older 
generation in the use of leisure may be a question. 
The hope here, as everywhere else, is largely with 
youth. To establish in their lives the habit and 
ability of using their leisure “for morally construc¬ 
tive purposes” is no longer a side issue but a major 
task. 

1. Leisure turned into Profit Through Play 

The use of leisure for play has always been in¬ 
stinctive and natural both among children and 


218 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


adults. Everybody recognizes that play is “fun,” 
but not everybody has come to realize that play is 
•profitable. It has been looked upon often as a kind 
of necessary evil to be tolerated. The discovery that 
it was instead a high and indispensable value to be 
utilized was not made until^ comparatively recent 
times, and even yet is not fully appreciated by all 
grown-ups. 

Henry S. Curtis declares that “play must every¬ 
where have served some great purpose, or it would 
not everywhere have survived.” The universality of 
play, both among adults and children, in both 
ancient and modern times, is impressive testimony 
to its worth. The scores of books that are being 
turned out from the presses to-day on the value of 
play and its place in education, indicate that the 
modern world is at last awakening to the fact that 
the neglect of this subject must be tolerated no 
longer, but that it should be given conscious and 
intelligent direction. It is necessary to understand 
something of the nature and value of play if we 
would help Aen make their leisure profitable by 
the wise use of it. 

Play for the child is not a leisure-time activity. 
It is the main business of life. Joseph Lee has said: 
“Children’s play and the highest expressions of our 
grown-up life are in very truth the same. I once 
made the statement that the boy without a play¬ 
ground is father to the man without a job. The 
truth is more than that—the boy without a play¬ 
ground is the man without a job. He is suffering 
the same loss—the absence from his life of the chief 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


219 


means of living, tlie cutting of the main strand of 
his existence. Play is to the boy what work is to 
the man—the fullest attainable expression of what 
he is, and the effective means of becoming more.” 2 

But while many people are fully convinced of the 
importance of play in the life of children, they have 
not seen the value of play for young people and 
adults. Work has here become the main business of 
life, and if there is any play at all, it is confined 
to the leisure time. But it is not for that to be 
considered as unimportant. One of the often re¬ 
peated sayings of Jesus was, “Verily, I say unto 
you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 
as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” 
That statement assumes new significance in the 
light of the fact that the predominant character¬ 
istic of childhood is play. Perhaps he meant that 
unless adults can have something of that glad, free, 
spontaneous spirit that is found in childhood’s play, 
we can have no place in his kingdom. 

Play for adults is the opening of the doors to¬ 
ward childhood again, that we may be kept young. 
Herbert Spencer once said: “We do not cease play¬ 
ing because we grow old, but we grow old because 
we cease playing.” How often the world has been 
prevented from going forward, and has fallen into 
the rut because people have lost the eager, hopeful, 
forward looking, spontaneous spirit of youth, and 
have grown prematurely old. 

Gulick defines play as “what we do when we are 
free to do what we will.” It is the pursuit of the 


Moseph Lee, Play in Education , Introduction, p. viii. 



220 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


ideal, the expression of certain pleasurable emo¬ 
tions. Warren T. Powell, in his splendid little 
book Recreational Leadership, well says that play, 
being the expression of our spontaneous desires and 
free choices, is the true index of a people’s civiliza¬ 
tion. We may go further and say that play is not 
only the index but also in a sense a molder of civi¬ 
lization. If it is true that “if you want to know 
what a child is, study his play; and if you want to 
affect what he shall be, direct his form of play,” 3 
then it must be true eventually of civilization. It 
reminds one of the famous remark of Wellington 
that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the cricket 
fields of Eton. Much of the aggressiveness of 
American soldiers in France was learned on the 
football fields of America. 

But while play has its obvious value in con¬ 
tributing to physical growth and virility and the 
ideal of “keeping fit,” that is but the beginning of 
the story. For multitudes, it is the indispensable 
relaxation from the strain and pressure of life under 
modern conditions. It is in a genuine sense a re¬ 
creation, a restoring of balance, a recuperation of 
bodily and mental alertness without which effective¬ 
ness of work could not be long continued. Henry 
Ward Beecher said: “Amusement and recreation are 
the very things that make our working hours profit¬ 
able. He who carves so steadily that he has no 
time to sharpen his knife, works with dull tools and 
cannot make much headway.” It is a means of 
quickening and training of mental life. It briugs 


3 Gulick, A Philosophy of Play. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


221 


people together into closer friendship. It has its 
inevitable influence upon character. “No boy can 
be allowed to play dishonestly without becoming 
less trustworthy in other respects. No girl can 
spend her time in excessive attendance upon the 
theater or moving-picture show, or in reading of 
sentimental novels without becoming more or less 
frivolous and shallow .” 4 On the other hand, the 
right sort of recreation will develop will power, 
courage, fairness, a sense of justice, self-control, 
cheerfulness, and many another “worth while,” 
which gives life its tone and quality. 

He who has the high privilege of directing the 
play life of youth to-day may have a royal part in 
determining the victories that are to be won to¬ 
morrow. 

Unfortunately, the church has not always appre¬ 
ciated its opportunity in this field. Its attitude has 
too often been negative and critical. It has failed 
to discriminate between good and bad in play, and 
so has sometimes frowned upon play of every sort. 
Such an attitude is not surprising even though it 
be unfortunate, when it is remembered that often 
the most vicious and undesirable people in the com¬ 
munity have occupied the field of managing the 
amusement agencies. And the ultimate results have 
been so injurious that the church felt driven to the 
attitude of restriction and prohibition. 

Such an attitude, however well intended, has not 
brought the desired results. It has left the field of 
recreation practically unchallenged in the hands of 


Hlates, Recreation and the Church, p. 20. 



222 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WOKK 


those who have little sympathy for the church’s 
ideals. It has often resulted in the utter prostitu¬ 
tion of play from its high and noble function. There 
is not space here, of course, to discuss the amuse¬ 
ment and recreation situation in detail. But every 
one is familiar with the dangers that have arisen 
through the surrender of this field to unworthy 
leadership. 

The first is the danger of professionalism . We 
are losing the art of “making our own fun.” We are 
letting the professionals entertain us, and are tak¬ 
ing our play by proxy. We are affected by the dis¬ 
ease of a spectatoritis.” Watching the team play 
may be fascinating, but it does not provide exercise 
for our own muscles. Anything that discourages 
the individual from doing his own playing will rob 
him of the wholesome benefits which he needs from 
play. 

There is also the danger of commercialism. 
Whenever the sole motive of profit lays its slimy 
hand upon any enterprise, the degradation of that 
enterprise is not far distant. Its purpose is the 
exploitation of human life, not its service. It is a 
cold-blooded matter of dollars and cents. “Com¬ 
mercial interests have discovered the natural re¬ 
sources of the play instinct, and are exploiting it 
for gain as ruthlessly as they have exploited other 
great natural resources .” 5 

There is the consequent danger of immorality. 
When the chief motive is the cash register, the 
management is not likely to be particular about 


6 Edwards, Christianity and Amusements, p. 17. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


223 


morals. Miss Jane Addams declares: “Since Oliver 
Cromwell shut up the people’s playhouses, and de¬ 
stroyed their pleasure fields, the Anglo-Saxon city 
has turned over the provision for public recreation 
to the most evifiminded and unscrupulous members 
of the community .” * 6 

While there is much that is clean and wholesome, 
one cannot deny plain facts. The public dance 
halls, the pool rooms, the amusement parks, the 
cheap theaters, the skating rinks, the river excur¬ 
sion boats are too often centers of immoral influ¬ 
ence and breeding places of vice. The moving pic¬ 
ture, with all of its popularity and its possibility 
for good, often gives an utterly distorted and per¬ 
verted idea of life and satirizes and ridicules the 
most sacred things. Mr. Powell quotes one spectator 
as saying, after having seen one feature film: “I 
do not want to be dragged through the rat holes of 
civilization to be entertained .” 7 

These facts have brought the church face to face 
with a challenge that cannot longer be avoided. 
We cannot afford to be indifferent to the kind of 
agencies that seek to direct the recreational life of 
youth. It all too frequently happens that a few 
leisure hours spent at the wrong kind of play may 
do more to undermine the influence of the church 
than weeks of constructive effort may rebuild. Nor 
is the negative attitude longer sufficient. People are 
going to play. And it is well that they should. It 

8 Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets , 

p. 7. 

7 Powell, Recreational Leadership , p. 13. 



224 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


is a divinely implanted instinct. It is linked lip 
closely with the highest aims and ideals of the 
Christian life. It is too valuable an asset to be 
thrown away. Directing the play life is the church’s 
great opportunity to turn the people’s leisure into 
the gold of the Kingdom. _ 

The church is beginning to meet the challenge. 
An altogether new attitude is manifest. The Ep- 
worth League, and especially the Institute, with 
its program of recreation conducted for years, has 
been, in my judgment, the biggest single factor in 
this change of attitude. There is a new appreciation 
of the value of play, and an eagerness to provide 
positive and constructive leadership. The action of 
our General Conference of 1920, already referred to 
on page 20, gives public and official recognition 
of this change of front, and is a prophecy of great 
good for the future. Restrictive measures may still 
be necessary in dealing with the nauseating situa¬ 
tion brought on by the present agencies in the field, 
but the hope of the future is in the strong and con¬ 
structive and wholesome leadership on the part of 
the church. Then play will come into its own. 
Under the touch of Christ, it is elevated and puri¬ 
fied and made to serve all the high moral and spir¬ 
itual ends for which God intended it when he made 
us “play built animals.” 

2. Leisure Turned to Projit Through Culture 

Closely allied to play, and, in fact, growing out 
of the true play spirit, is the employment of spare 
time in the acquiring of useful knowledge and in 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


225 


developing the cultural values of life. A man's 
sympathies, and hence his ultimate usefulness to 
society, will depend much upon the breadth of his 
interests. And yet it will require leisure time in 
which to cultivate them. 

Some lives are so narrow and restricted and 
poverty-stricken in this regard, while others are so 
broad and rich that they seem to belong to differ¬ 
ent realms altogether. Yet time is a great demo¬ 
crat. It plays no favorites. All »are given exactly 
the same fair and impartial treatment. Every man 
is dealt out the same identical amount of hours and 
minutes and seconds per day that every other man 
receives. It is not possible by any manner of 
political pull or social prestige or any other inside 
influence to persuade Father Time to put more days 
into one man’s year than another. We all start out 
on exactly the same footing with regard to our time. 
And the vast ranges of gradation between folks, 
from the narrowest and scrawniest and meanest to 
the broadest and most cultured and most useful, 
have all been worked out on exactly sixty minutes 
to the hour and twenty-four hours to the day. The 
difference has been produced by the difference in 
the employment of time, and particularly of leisure 
time. 

If it is a sin to waste money needlessly, it must 
be a crime to waste time, for time is the raw ma¬ 
terial out of which life is made. The most pathetic 
aspect of the amusement situation to-day with the 
hordes of pleasure-seekers rushing to every kind of 
cheap and tawdry amusement to be entertained is 


226 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


the incredible and the irremediable squandering of 
time. So utterly lacking in cultural value are most 
of the interminable hours spent thus, that it is little 
cause for surprise when such devotees soon become 
jaded and heavy eyed and broken in spirit, or that 
they are utterly bereft of those finer things that 
make life increasingly rich and worth while. 

One of the most rewarding services that can be 
rendered to youth is to help them develop an under¬ 
standing and appreciation of the higher things of 
our civilization, and to know that the greatest fun 
there is in the world is to explore them. Once their 
eyes are opened to the wonders in nature to be dis¬ 
covered, and the entrancing books to be read, and 
the world of art and music and science and human 
achievement to be mastered, it is unbelievable that 
they should then continue to find attraction in the 
cheap commercialized amusements. Life is too 
short, and the cultural world to be appropriated is 
too vast, and the jobs to be tackled are too big, for 
such purposeless waste. Once the play spirit—the 
spontaneous expression of pleasurable emotion, and 
the pursuit of the ideal—is turned into this chan¬ 
nel, for the employment of leisure time, the en¬ 
richment of life is incalculable. 

3. Turning Leisure into Profit Through 
Comradeship 

The use of leisure for the cultivation of friend¬ 
ships is as natural and instinctive as play to the 
normal personality. And the consequent profit de¬ 
rived therefrom is a part of universal experience. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


227 


Many a poem and many a book have been written 
on the many-sided enrichment brought to life 
through the simple and wonderful *fact: “I had a 
friend.” It will be readily agreed that the making 
and keeping of such friendships requires a certain 
amount of leisure to accomplish, and that few more 
profitable employments of leisure could be found. 

To one who has really caught the Christian spirit, 
however, it is a vastly greater question than merely 
that of using leisure to get friends. The story is 
told 8 that this question was recently put to a group 
of seniors in one of our universities: “Why should 
men go to college?” After they had discussed and 
rejected all other motives suggested by members of 
the group as incomplete or unworthy, they finally 
agreed upon the answer: “To get friends.” They 
probably meant more than they said, yet as it was 
stated, what more selfish ideal could have been 
advanced? “Not one of this selected and gifted 
group of men suggested that he had come to college 
to be a friend. And yet the difference between these 
two points of view—the one, of getting friends, and 
the other of being a friend—is a difference between 
the poles of human existence. It is the difference 
between selfishness and love.” 

Our concern, if we are Christians, is not with the 
selfish and easy art of getting and holding friends. 
It is, rather, with the difficult and costly art of 
being a friend. The real tragedy of life consists 
not “in being friendless but in being unfriendly. 

8 Stewart-Wright, Personal Evangelism Among Students , 
p. 37. Used by permission of Association Press, publishers. 



228 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


While the real romance of living is that a man can 
be a friend without, at the start, having a friend in 
the world. . .* . This was true of Him who came 
to His own when His own received Him not. . . . 
I may be friendless, but no one can compel me to 
be unfriendly.” 

Young people are bound to have comradeship. It 
is natural and instinctive and necessary. They 
will make an opportunity for it in some fashion. If 
it cannot be found in the midst of wholesome sur¬ 
roundings, the danger is that it may be found under 
conditions which will defeat the higher life. Here 
is one of the most profitable and most Christian 
employments of leisure—to be friends to a group of 
young people who are hungering for friendship—to 
provide that opportunity for comradeship under in¬ 
spiring conditions which will leave larger personali¬ 
ties behind. True, such friendship develops simul¬ 
taneously with other processes. It grows in the 
midst of play. It springs up out of association in 
cultural and other activities. But to really be 
friendly requires some outlay of time and thought 
and energy on the part of somebody. That should 
be the inspiring spirit behind every Fourth Depart¬ 
ment and every other League activity. 

4. Turning Leisure into Profit Through the 
Spiritual Life 

The growth of the spiritual life goes forward best 
only when a certain amount of leisure is available 
for its cultivation. The man who works at a blast 
furnace twelve hours a day for months without a 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


229 


holiday or Sunday off will labor under difficulties, 
to say the least, in maintaining the spiritual life. 
Yet there are multitudes who have their full share 
of leisure and more, whose spiritual life is prac¬ 
tically nil because none of their leisure is appro¬ 
priated to cultivate it. 

The First Department rightly calls upon every 
young Christian to make room in his spare mo¬ 
ments for a devotional study of the Bible and for 
prayer, to take time in his personal life for the in¬ 
tensive cultivation of his spiritual nature. It chal¬ 
lenges him to take time for regular attendance at 
the devotional meeting, and the public worship of 
the church, that he may thereby “tap the great 
sources of power,” and grow a Christian character. 

Yet shall we conclude that, vital as these mo¬ 
ments of specific worship may be, they afford the 
only opportunities for the development of a spir¬ 
itual personality ? At most, these will comprise but 
a fraction even of our leisure time, not to mention 
the periods of our regular work. Must we look 
upon these times of special devotion as oases in the 
desert, to which we come now and then with parch¬ 
ing souls, while all the rest of life is barren of any 
spiritual meaning or significance? 

Perhaps that is too often the attitude on 
the part of young people, because they have never 
been taught any nobler view. The truly spiritual 
personality will see spiritual meaning in all of life. 
When the secret of the prayer hour is really learned, 
the presence and authority and leadership of Christ 
are made real for every moment of work and leisure. 


230 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


All life becomes suffused with his Spirit. Every¬ 
thing that is done will be done in his name and for 
his sake. The spiritual fourth vice-president (and 
should there ever dare be any other kind?) will 
rejoice in making the culture, the fun, the recrea¬ 
tion of the young people so clean and wholesome, as 
never to undermine and make difficult, but to en¬ 
hance and intensify the spiritual life. 

Have you ever noticed how easy and natural is 
the transition at an Epworth League Institute, from 
a perfectly hilarious period of recreation to a time 
of most intense and heartfelt devotion? If any 
observer, seeing this, thinks of it as a strange mix¬ 
ing of oil and water, or as a piece of impossible 
spiritual acrobatics, it is either because he does not 
understand the true nature of play or the spirit of 
the Christian life, or both. To inspire in young 
people that spontaneous, joyous, Christian spirit 
that may express itself alike either in play or work 
or worship, and will instinctively eschew in either 
every expression that is incompatible with that 
spirit, is a service than which nothing could be more 
in harmony with the plans of our Lord. 

5. Leisure Turned into Profit Through Service 

The question of utilizing leisure for the purpose 
of the kingdom of God has a final import that 
touches vitally the whole program of the church. 
In a sense, the future success of the church’s work 
will be dependent upon her ability to enlist a host 
of young people in full time Christian service. Un¬ 
less she can do that, year by year, commanding the 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


231 


best and finest of youth for her tasks, her work will 
languish. According to the figures of the Life Serv¬ 
ice Commission, there are now in full-time service in 
the various branches of Methodist Church activity 
a total of 28,286 persons. This includes ministers, 
teachers, deaconesses, nurses, etc. These ranks must 
be kept full, and even increased. 

But no one who is able to think at all will con¬ 
sider for a moment that this comparative handful 
of men and women is carrying forward the whole 
work of the Methodist Church. They are but the 
corps of officers, who are leading in the great cam¬ 
paign for world redemption. But the campaign will 
never be finally won without the consecrated effort 
of the four million members in the rank and file, 
upon whom the brunt of the battle for a better world 
must fall. 

But these four millions are a busy lot. They are 
doctors, lawyers, farmers, merchants, laboring 
men, housewives, students, and what not, practically 
all of them “hard at it,” making a living, and doing 
the world’s work or preparing for it. To be engaged 
in such business must not be counted as mere secular 
occupation. We are coming to see to-day that all 
work that helps to meet the real needs of mankind 
is sacred, and is a part of the kingdom task. But 
what they do in carrying forward the specific work 
of the church must be done in their leisure time. 
That means that the major part of the work of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church will be dependent upon 
the willingness of a multitude of people to dedicate 
a part of their leisure hours to its promotion. 


232 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Who shall say, therefore, that the church has not 
a tremendous stake in the teaching of youth the 
right use of leisure? Her very life and strength and 
effectiveness will more and more rest upon it. 
Youth who squander their margins of time in profit¬ 
less and degrading amusements will not likely count 
for much later in the church’s work. They will 
scarcely have the spiritual vision for it. They will 
not have so furnished their minds as to make their 
service of much value. Having established the 
habit of expending their leisure on their gratifica¬ 
tion, and never having learned the habit of dedicat¬ 
ing a part of it to unselfish service, little short of 
a moral miracle will turn their adult life to good 
account for the church. 


III. Fourth Department Responsibility in 
Directing the Investment of Leisure 

The new program of Christian Recreation and 
Culture as represented by the Fourth Department 
is seen, therefore, to have new importance in the 
light of the church’s need. It is not a kind of con¬ 
cession to the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is, 
rather, the wide-open door to the League room and 
to the church and to the Christian life. It is the 
first point of friendly contact with a great group of 
youth who may be won to the church. It is esti¬ 
mated that the Epworth League in one year touched 
at least 2,200,000 young people with its recreational 
program. What a tremendous field for cultivation! 
With the right spiritual emphasis and atmosphere 


FOB YOUNG PEOPLE 


233 


this program should provide a natural and beauti¬ 
ful first step into that inner circle of the friends of 
the Master. It is thus the indispensable right arm 
of the First Department, and should be marked by 
not one whit less a spirit of consecration. 

By the action of the General Conference, in mak¬ 
ing it possible for the fourth vice-president to be¬ 
come the director of recreation for the whole church, 
a vast new field is opened. By his direction of the 
“play spirit” into wholesome channels, compatible 
with the highest spiritual life, he may help to cheer 
up the whole spirit of Christianity. As we have 
said, play is the spontaneous expression of impulse 
and emotion in the pursuit of an ideal. You play 
for the sheer love of it, and you find joy in doing 
it. Work is something that is usually thought of 
as being done from a sense of duty, for some ulterior 
motive, usually money, but without that free spon¬ 
taneity. Yet many a man finds just that ideal in his 
work, and does it in that same spirit; to him work 
becomes play in the highest sense. 

How many people there are who make hard and 
drudging work out of their religion! There isn’t 
much freedom and spontaneity and joy in it. It is 
chiefly done from a sense of duty rather than from 
a sheer love of it. What a transforming thing it 
would be if men could carry this same spirit of glad, 
eager, spontaneous joy into their religion that now 
characterizes their play! Of course there is a sense 
in which it is shameful the way we play at our reli¬ 
gion, in the sense of not going about it seriously. 
But there is another sense in which it would be a 


234 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


blessed thing if men did play at their religion more 
—by putting heart and enthusiasm and love into it. 

May not the Fourth Department help to add that 
element of sunshine and joy and gladness to our 
religion that is so much needed? That is the kind 
of religion that Jesus must have lived. You can¬ 
not imagine him going about it with a long face, 
holding to duty with grim tenacity, even though 
his heart was not in it. Not by any manner of 
means. His meat was to do his Father’s will. He 
was so absorbed in the joyous task of ministering 
to folks that he was thought by some of his friends 
to be beside himself. He said to his disciples that 
he wanted his joy to be in them, and that their joy 
might be full. 

With what mighty impulse would the work of the 
church be set forward if every member in it devoting 
his margin of time and energy and money to the 
church’s task, would do it with that free, glad, 
spontaneous spirit! Many do it already. But 
multitudes more are in training for just that kind 
of service wherever the Fourth Department is wide 
awake and knows what it is about. It is a right 
royal task to help capture for Christ and his pro¬ 
gram the leisure time and energy and money of 
America. 


IV. The Fourth Vice-President 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


235 


1. His Task. 

The preceding part of this chapter may be con¬ 
sidered an outline of the responsibility of the fourth 
vice-president. His task is to inspire and direct the 
Christian investment of the leisure of youth through 
play and recreation, through the cultivating of the 
higher interests, and the suffusing of all life with 
the spirit of Christ. 

2. His Tools. 

(1) The Methodist Discipline, 1920, which outlines 

the new importance of the fourth vice-presi¬ 
dent. Paragraph 486. 

(2) Play for Body and Brain, Brummitt. 

(3) The Epworth Herald. 

(4) A good general book on amusements such, for 

example, as Christianity and Amusements , 
by Edwards. 

(5) At least one good book on how to go about the 

direction of recreation: such as Warren T. 
Powell’s Recreational Leadership, or Pro¬ 
fessor Norman E. Richardson’s book, The 
Church at Play. 

(6) One good book of games and recreation, such 

as: 

Recreation for Young and Old, Homer K. 
Ebright. 

Ice Breakers, Geister. 

Epworthian’s Fun Book, Edythe S. Fassett. 
Handbook of Games and Programs, La- 
Porte. 


236 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


Games for Home, Playground and School, 
Bancroft. 

(7) A loose-leaf notebook for the collection of 
games, stunts, etc. An excellent one for this 
purpose is Rohrbough’s “Handy,” which many 
have found highly useful. 

3. His Methods. 

(1) Preparation for the Task. 

Realize that the fourth vice-president has a 
larger job than ever before, and one for which 
special preparation is required. Secure from 
the Library, or, if that cannot be done, either 
buy or get the chapter to buy some of the 
books mentioned above, and study your job. 
There is enough good material now published 
on play as related to the church, and on the 
methods of direction of it, that it is entirely 
possible for the average Leaguer assigned to 
this office to do a very creditable piece of 
work in the directing of recreation. Remem¬ 
ber that the price of hard work and careful 
planning will have to be paid. But to do 
such a job as this well will be worth all it 
costs. 

(2) Organizing the Department. The following 

Fourth Department Committees may be ap¬ 
pointed : 

A. Committee on Recreational Program. 

B. Committee on Culture and Epworth 

Herald. 


FOE YOUNG PEOPLE 


237 


C. Committee on Membership. 

D. Committee on Institutes. 

(3) Promoting the Epworth League Institute. 

(For the Committee on Institute.) 

A. Why put this subject at the head of the 
list? 

(A) Because the Epworth League Insti¬ 

tute affords one of the finest pos¬ 
sible illustrations of the Christian 
use of leisure. Those who attend 
usually do so on the leisure time 
that would have been spent in 
some other kind of vacation. And 
it is an illustration of the way in 
which leisure can be made profit¬ 
able through its 

a. Recreational value. 

b. Cultural value. 

c. Friendship value. 

d. Spiritual value. 

e. Service value. 

(B) Because it is a fine school for the 

training of fourth vice-presidents. 
The recreations are usually put in 
charge of some competent leader. 
Study him. Catch his spirit. 
Watch his methods. See how he 
goes about it to direct a game, 
noting points to be imitated or 
avoided. Take notes on games 
and stunts that would be worth 


238 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


repeating at home. If a class is 
offered in Fourth-Department 
work, take it by all means, and get 
everything possible into your 
notebook. Supply yourself with 
the literature exhibited there. 
Make right use of your oppor¬ 
tunity at Institute, and you may 
well come home a full-fledged 
Fourth V. P. 

(C) Because there is no finer way to 
launch the new recreational pro¬ 
gram in the local church than by 
the help of a delegation who have 
had demonstrated to them the real 
fun and profit of Christian recrea¬ 
tion, as is found at the Institute. 
While every department is inter¬ 
ested in the making up of this dele¬ 
gation, the interest of the Fourth 
Department is paramount, and 
the responsibility for its promo¬ 
tion is assigned here. 

B. Methods of securing delegates to the Insti¬ 
tutes. 

(A) Maintain interest all through the 

year, by frequent references to the 
Institute, and by repeating games 
and stunts and songs used there. 

(B) Organize Institute Club early in 

year, and have the Leaguers start 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


239 


savings accounts for the Institute 
fund. Make every effort to have 
a good share of expense money 
provided beforehand. 

(C) Post pictures of last year’s Insti¬ 

tute in the League room from time 
to time. 

(D) Have Booster and Stunt Nights. 

(E) Have talks by former delegates. 

(F) Cooperate in every way possible 

with the Institute publicity man¬ 
ager, in getting the new plans, 
faculty, and special attractions 
before the attention of the 
Leaguers. 

(4) Methods for Directing the Recreational Pro¬ 
gram. 

(For the Committee on Recreational Pro¬ 
gram.) 

A. General duties of a director of recreation. 
Since the General Conference has au¬ 
thorized the appointment of the fourth 
vice-president as director of recreation 
for the whole church, the League should 
take advantage of this opportunity as 
rapidly as possible. The problem of 
recreation needs to be solved as a unit 
for the whole church. Mr. Powell, in his 
Recreational Leadership, gives the fol¬ 
lowing suggestive outline of the duties of 
a director for the church: “Among his 


240 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


most important duties, in cooperation 
with the pastor and the Recreational 
Committee, are: 

"1. Education of church and com¬ 
munity to wholesome standards 
of play life. 

“2. Education of the church to the 
values and importance of recrea¬ 
tion, both indoor and outdoor, 
especially the latter. 

“3. Promotion of better health stand¬ 
ards in the community. 

“4. Correlation of all recreational pro¬ 
grams of the different agencies 
within the church. 

“5. Correlation of agencies and pro¬ 
grams outside of the church, 
such as Boy Scouts, Camp Fire 
Girls, Young Men’s Christian 
Association, etc. 

“6. Construction of a program, in co¬ 
operation with the committee on 
recreation, to include all months 
of the year. This means a 
graded and educational pro¬ 
gram, which recognizes the de¬ 
velopmental values of play ac¬ 
tivity. Programs adapted to 
childhood, adolescence, and 
adulthood are to be included. 

“7. Provision for all necessary super- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


241 


vision of programs and main¬ 
tenance of order and discipline. 

“8. Provision for a well-balanced 
recreational life, which includes 
social, physical, mental, and 
religious life. 

“9. Recommendation of equipment and 
housing for recreation and 
supervision of this equipment.” 

B. Where possible, a careful survey of the 

recreational agencies at work in the en¬ 
tire community should be made, in order 
to determine which of these are whole¬ 
some and should be given cooperation, 
and which are unwholesome, and should 
be restricted. Where an exhaustive 
survey can be made, it would be well to 
get some well-prepared questionnaire to 
follow. If it cannot be carried out on so 
elaborate a scale, at least a general 
understanding of the local situation is 
needed. 

C. The program of recreation should be 

planned for the entire year. Mr. Powell, 
in the book quoted above, gives an out¬ 
line of a year’s activities adaptable to 
young people’s groups, both in cities and 
in rural districts. 

January: 

New Year’s reception; New Year’s 
calls. 


242 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


Missionary pageant. 

Indoor picnic. 

Debate. 

Neighborhood night; radio. 

Winter sports party. 

February: 

Valentine party. 

Neighborhood night; lecture. 

Lincoln service. 

Sleighing party. 

Washington party. 

March: 

Saint Patrick’s Day party. 

Mock inaugural ceremony. 
Stewardship dramatization. 

Book party. 

Neighborhood night; community 
sing. 

April: 

Neighborhood night; April Fool 
party. 

Stunt night. 

Easter pageant. 

Outdoor-sports party. 

Institute party. 

May: 

Epworth League anniversary pag¬ 
eant. 

May Day festival. 





FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


243 


Hike and wienie roast. 
Neighborhood night; patriotic eve¬ 
ning. 

Mother’s Hay. 

Organize baseball team or league. 


June: 

Neighborhood night; Father’s Day. 
Field day and picnic. 

College night. 

Tennis tournament. 

Lantern hike and camp fire. 

July: 

Independence Day; community cele¬ 
bration. 

Institute, camp, and summer schools. 
Baseball tournament. 

Aquatic-sports party. 

Camera party. 

Sunday outdoor-fellowship devo¬ 
tional hour. 

August: 

Lawn fete. 

Community Chautauqua program. 
Camp fire, sing, and stories. 

Tennis or other sport tournament. 
Hayrack party. 

September: 

Booth festival; Labor Day. 


244 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Rally service. 

Mock political convention. 

Toasts and roasts. 

Fall athletics. 

October: 

Harvest home. 

Halloween party. 

Neighborhood night; health carnival. 
Denominational night. 

America night (October 12). 
“Movie” night. 

November: 

• Thanksgiving: 

(a) Breakfast hike. 

(b) Party, with special effort to 

entertain young people 
away from home. 

Debate and parliamentary contest. 
New England supper. 

Neighborhood musical night; songs, 
games, and entertainment. 

December: 

Interchurch spelling bee and old- 
fashioned games. 

Indoor track meet. 

Christmas carol service. 
Neighborhood night; Christmas 
plays and pageants. 

Watch night. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


245 


(5) Methods of making the League a Cultural 
Agency. 

(For the Committee on Culture and the Ep- 
worth Herald.) 

A. Make more of the Epworth Herald. 

(A) As the League’s trade paper, it is a 

matter of highest common sense to 
make much of it; but it has rich 
value also as a means of general 
culture. Puts Leaguers in touch 
with big ideas, the world of affairs 
from a Christian viewpoint, the 
new books published, etc. Great 
undeveloped mine of cultural 
value in average League. 

(B) Fourth vice-president is Epworth 

Herald agent. Make it your busi¬ 
ness to push subscriptions, as a 
matter of real service to your fel¬ 
low Leaguers. Make much of 
Herald night, but do not stop there. 
There is no recipe for success like 
everlasting personal work in se¬ 
curing subscriptions. 

'(C) Encourage wider use of the Herald, 
a. Of course the Herald will be 
used in preparation for the 
devotional meeting. But 
don’t abuse it. Jesse 
Bunch says: “Think of the 
slaughtered Epworth Heralds. 


246 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


Samson slew one thousand 
with the jawbone of an ass, 
but that was as nothing com¬ 
pared with the slaughtering— 
the beheading and dismember¬ 
ing of the Herald.” Some¬ 
body has called it “clipto- 
mania.” 

b. Have literary meeting in which 

the Herald is featured. 

c. Have a Herald Contest. Divide 

the League into two groups. 
Let each group select two or 
three representatives. Assign 
to the first representative 
from each group a study of a 
given issue of the Herald, the 
second from each group an¬ 
other issue, etc. At the time 
of contest, give those study¬ 
ing the same issue five minutes 
each to test the other’s infor¬ 
mation as to what he read. 
Very instructive as well as 
amusing. Try it. 

d. Circulate copies of the Herald 

among nonsubscribers, and 
encourage wider reading of it. 
Young people would be made 
better Leaguers, better Meth¬ 
odists, better Christians if 
they fed more on reading of 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


247 


this sort than on a lot of the 
trash that steals their spare 
time. 

B. Encourage the reading of good books. 

(A) The cultural value of establishing 

the habit of good reading in the 
lives of young people is incalcu¬ 
lable. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman says: 
“Gibbon declared that he would 
not exchange the habit of good 
reading for the wealth of the 
Indies. It costs the genuine book- 
lover nothing to make the great 
historian’s declaration his own. 
What is ‘the wealth of the Indies’ 
but a rhetorical flourish about an 
unusable and dangerous opulence? 
But for me and millions more, 
reading is a part of life’s in¬ 
separable good interwoven during 
the past years into nearly every 
act of intelligent consciousness. 
The strength, the consolation, the 
enjoyment derived from books are 
practically measureless with me. 
They almost come before food, and 
in importance they exceed 
clothes.” 

(B) If you have a public library near by, 

the librarian will be glad to fur¬ 
nish you with lists of worth-while 


248 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


new books. Post such lists in 
League room from time to time, 
and urge members to secure and 
read them. 

(C) If no library is available, make a 

circulating library by putting up 
a shelf in the League room some¬ 
where, and inviting members to 
loan the books which have meant 
most to them, that others may 
share the enjoyment and profit. 
Appoint some one to be librarian, 
and keep careful record of all 
books loaned. 

(D) In many churches, where no library 

is available, the pastor helps meet 
the need by loaning out his own 
books to young people. His advice 
will also be helpful in recommend¬ 
ing good books. 

(E) Plan a literary evening, in which 

opportunity may be given for sev¬ 
eral to tell of their favorite books, 
and the message derived from 
them. 

C. Other cultural activities. 

(A) Courses of lectures. 

(B) Pageants and plays. 

(C) Debates. 

(D) Parliamentary evenings, mock con¬ 

ventions, etc. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


249 


(6) Recruiting 100 per cent of the League Con¬ 
stituency. 

(For the Committee on Membership.) 

The cultural and recreational program 
of the League is not to be considered as a 
kind of bait to be used in catching young 
people for the church, or as a species of 
bribery by which we persuade them to be¬ 
come Christians. It is not the sugar-coat¬ 
ing of pleasure that makes palatable the 
pill of church membership. 

Rather, if rightly conducted, it is to be 
counted as so indispensable and so whole¬ 
some a ministry to the inherent needs of 
young life that its inevitable fruit will be 
the building and strengthening of Chris¬ 
tian character and the establishing of the 
Christian life. The work of the entire 
church is a unit, with its great objective 
that of leading men into the Christian way 
of living, and of making this world into 
the kingdom of God. If play and culture 
are truly Christian, they will contribute 
naturally and richly to that end. Play 
does not always do that, because play is 
sometimes prostituted from its noble estate 
and becomes unchristian. It is our busi¬ 
ness to make the play and culture of the 
Fourth Department clean and wholesome 
and to suffuse it through and through with 
the Christian spirit. And then it will con¬ 
tribute as naturally to our great objectives 


250 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


as do the educational or the worship pro¬ 
grams of the church. But these objectives 
must be constantly borne in mind, and as 
earnestly striven for as is expected of the 
First Department. And the results of 
Fourth-Department activity must be con¬ 
stantly checked up with this high purpose 
in view. “By their fruits ye shall know 
them.” It is the climax of the privilege of 
Fourth-Department service, to see chums 
won to a vital acquaintance with Christ,J 
and to lives of Christian grace and useful¬ 
ness. 

A. Make a careful survey of the young people 

for whom your chapter should be held 
responsible. Work with the Resource 
Committee of the Win-My-Clium Cam-1 
paign in preparing such a list, or at 
least avail yourself of their results. See 
that you have the name and address of 
every one of them. If we believe in this 
task at all, we must believe it is too im¬ 
portant to be done hit or miss. Not one 
of them must be allowed to slip 
through our fingers through neglect or 
slipshod methods. 

B. Seek to reach every last one of this con-J 

stituency with the recreational program. ’ 
Cultivate them constantly. Invite them 
persistently until they come. Yours is 
the privilege of forming the first con- 




FOR- YOUNG PEOPLE 


251 


tact and making the first impression. 
When yon remember all that that may 
mean if followed up properly, for their 
later Christian life, it is a task that 
dare not be undertaken without much 
prayer. 

C. When you get them to your party or other 
social affair, see that so live and inter¬ 
esting and friendly a time is had that 
the first tie with them will be made 
secure. 

I). Follow up this first advantage by seeking 
to make the relationship permanent. 
Plan an individual campaign with each 
new prospect, suiting your plans to his 
own personality and situation, with the 
particular end in view of getting him 
signed up as a full-fledged member of 
the chapter. 

E. Make more of his joining the League than 

formerly. Some chapters are now work¬ 
ing on an impressive initiation cere¬ 
mony, which will vividly impress them 
with the meaning of membership and 
their responsibility involved. 

F. Help to put the new members immediately 

to work in some department and in this 
way build them into the life of the 
League. 

G. Do not be content until you have helped 

to win them to the Christian life and to 
church membership. 


252 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


CHAPTER VII 

The Fourth Department: The Task of Turning 
Leisure into Profit 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 

Introduction: The fight for a fair distribution of 
work and leisure is being rapidly won, and the pres¬ 
ent generation has an unprecedented share of leisure. 
AVhat are we going to do with it? 

I. Leisure: Asset or Liability? 

1. Use of leisure may determine fate of civiliza¬ 

tion. 

2. Wrongly used, it becomes a dangerous lia¬ 

bility. 

3. Rightly used, it may become most valuable 

asset. 

4. How can the church “capture the spare time, 

money, and energy of America”? 

II. Turning Leisure into Profit. 

1. Through Play. 

(1) New appreciation of values of play. 

(2) Dangers of play when wrongly 

directed. 

(3) New attitude of the church, and the 

new plans for giving play life proper 
direction under auspices of the 
church. 

2. Through Culture. 

3. Through Comradeship. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


253 


4. Through the Spiritual Life. 

5. Through Service. 

III. Fourth Department Responsibility in Di¬ 
recting the Investment of Leisure. 

IV. The Fourth Vice-President. 

1. His Task. 

2. His Tools. 

3. His Methods. 

(1) Preparation for the Task. 

(2) Organizing the Department. 

(3) Promoting the Epworth League Insti¬ 

tute. 

(4) Directing the Recreational Program. 

(5) Making the Epworth League a Cul¬ 

tural Agency. 

(6) Recruiting 100 per cent of the League 

Constituency. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. How large a proportion of the young people of 
your acquaintance regard their leisure as something 
to be invested rather than something to be spent? 
What do you conceive to be the difference between 
these two points of view? 

2. Has the Epworth League any responsibility in 
helping to secure a greater amount of leisure for 
various classes in the community? How about co¬ 
operating with the Third Department in securing a 
half holiday each week for the clerks, stenographers, 
etc.? Would not that help solve the problem of 


254 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Sunday desecration as well as provide opportunity 
for a recreational program? 

3. Are there any young people in your community 
whose use of leisure makes it a liability rather than 
an asset? Is your League doing anything about it? 

4. Has your League chapter ever made a survey 
of the recreational agencies and opportunities in 
your community? If not, discuss the advisability 
of undertaking it, with the aid of your pastor. How 
can your Fourth Department plan an adequate pro¬ 
gram .of leisure unless you know something of the 
way in which young people are already using their 
leisure, and the agencies with which you must com¬ 
pete? Incidentally, such a study will likely reveal 
how imperative it is to provide a clean, wholesome 
program of recreation. 

5. Do you think it was a step forward or back¬ 
ward in dealing with the problem of amusements, 
when the General Conference of 1924 struck out 
from paragraph 280 of the Discipline the specific 
mention of dancing, theater-going, and card-playing, 
and substituted instead “such diversions as cannot 
be taken in the name of the Lord Jesus”? 

6. How can the Epworth League help to educate 
the conscience of the individual Christian to the 
place where doing what he does “in the name of the 
Lord Jesus” will be a far more powerful incentive 
than any church law could possibly be? 

7. What can your chapter do to lead out in a con¬ 
structive solution of the amusement and recreation 
problem in your community? 

8. Check up on your Fourth Department program, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


255 


to see whether yon are sufficiently emphasizing the 
“culture” side of the task. What more can be done ? 

9. What steps are being taken, or can be taken, to 
induce the largest possible number in the chapter to 
go to college? 

10. Is the program of recreation and culture in 
your chapter sufficiently steeped in prayer and the 
“win-my-chum” spirit, that it is a real asset in the 
task of recruiting not only for membership but for 
the Christian life? How largely does your social 
program contribute to that end? 

11. Ho you think it is possible to build a recrea¬ 
tional program so full of life and enthusiasm as to 
appeal to the outside group of young people to-day, 
and at the same time make it so clean and whole¬ 
some as to be compatible with, and contribute to, 
the highest spiritual ideals of the Epworth League? 

12. If so, what light does that throw on the sort 
of qualifications to be looked for in the selection of 
a fourth vice-president? 


256 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


CHAPTER VIII 

THE EPWORTH LEAGUE’S WIDESPREAD 
RELATIONSHIPS 

“What is a good telephone?” asks President 
Faunce in his timely little hook, New Horizons in 
Church and State. It is not merely one that is made 
of proper materials and fashioned after a certain 
model. It is one that is in immediate connection 
with the central exchange, and so with all other 
telephones throughout the land. 

“The value of the telephone is chiefly in its mani¬ 
fold relations and connections. Its wires are 
isolated only tha,t its service may be connected with 
that of all similar instruments in the city or the 
nation. Goodness in the telephone consists not in 
beauty of material or pattern, but in close and con¬ 
stant and widespread relations.” 

Even so, points out this social-minded thinker, “A 
good man to us is neither in static isolation nor in 
timorous flight. He is ‘connected up’ with his entire 
generation. In all their afflictions he is afflicted, in 
all their struggle he participates, to their collective 
triumph he points the way.” 

Much has been said in these pages about the re¬ 
sponsibility of the Epworth League in the develop¬ 
ment of Christian character in the life of youth. A 
true Christian character, however, cannot be de- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


257 


veloped in isolation. There are many elements of 
goodness that will never be known apart from wide¬ 
spread relations with other individuals. Neither 
can a Christian character, once established, be im¬ 
prisoned in selfish isolation. It will break through 
all walls, and transcend every barricade, and de¬ 
mand useful relationship with the rest of the world 
—else it becomes sickly and stunted and unnatural, 
if it does not perish altogether. 

We must start with personal individual goodness, 
just as an individual telephone must be properly 
made if it is to be able to receive or transmit mes¬ 
sages through its connection with the outside world. 
But granted the right kind of character to start 
with, one’s value will depend much upon how widely 
and how well one is “connected up” with the genera¬ 
tion in which he lives. 

The Epworth League has the privilege of serving 
as a sort of Central Exchange, whereby youth may 
be connected up with his world. Such service has 
a double value. It means a saving of youth from 
himself and from the limited circle of his own selfish 
interests. It means also the saving of the world. 
A light that is “put under a bushel” will have little 
effect in helping to illumine the surrounding dark¬ 
ness. Salt that has ever so pungent savor will have 
small influence in preserving meat from spoiling 
unless it is put into contact with it and “rubbed in.” 
A hermit living apart in his cell, achieving a 
spurious type of isolated “sainthood,” a Simeon 
Stylites, spending his days on the top of his pillar, 
and drawing up by a cord morsels of bread from an 


258 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WOEK 


admiring populace, are not much more useless than 
a disconnected telephone, or a smug, complacent, 
isolated, self-centered League chapter. 

Young people are not merely preparing for life. 
They are already living. It is not enough for them 
to dream of what they may do some day for the 
world. They are already in the world, and citizens 
of it, and should he busily engaged in establishing 
relations with it. In fact, the only time to success¬ 
fully cure provincialism, one of the world’s greatest 
handicaps, is in the period of youth, when life atti¬ 
tudes are not so fatally fixed but that they can be 
readjusted to wider horizons. 

The true Christian’s horizon, like the patriot’s, 
is a “series of concentric circles,” beginning with 
those relationships nearest at hand, and widening 
to circles of increasing amplitude, until every race 
of men, and every nation, and every influence that 
touches human life may be included. 

I. The Epworth League and the Local Church 

A close and integral relationship between the 
League chapter and the church is normal. Some¬ 
times one hears the criticism that the young people 
are clannish, and exclusive and self-sufficient; that 
they conduct their devotional and social affairs with 
scarce ever a thought of the church entering their 
heads, and that their only connection with that in¬ 
stitution is that it provides their place of meeting 
and pays for the fuel and the light. 

Perhaps there may be such a monstrosity here and 
there, but surely it is abnormal. The whole spirit 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


259 


and purpose and program of the Epworth League 
should lead to a most intimate and organic rela¬ 
tionship with the local church. It is not the church, 
but it is a most important part. To say that, how¬ 
ever, does not admit the criticism on the part of 
some others that the League is too much a part of 
the church. It is sometimes charged that the young 
people and the League exist for the church rather 
than that the church and the League exist for the 
young people. Jesus clearly taught that human 
personalities were always to be counted as superior 
to institutions. The Sabbath was made for man and 
not man for the Sabbath. So the church and any 
subordinate part of its machinery have value only as 
they enhance human values and promote the well¬ 
being of folks. If the League is ever thought of as 
existing for the sake of the church, it is not for the 
sake of the church as such, but ultimately for the 
sake of that humanity for whose welfare the church 
itself was called into being. 

When, therefore, it is claimed that the League is 
a means of draining leadership for the church,” it 
is not making the church an end in itself and the 
young people only cogs in the church machinery. 
It is a means of fitting them to use the church effec¬ 
tively and intelligently for their own highest self- 
expression in redeeming and enriching human life. 

1. At the heart of the relationship between the 
League and the church is its relation to the pastor. 
As overseer and manager of the entire church he 
alone is in position to effect the best coordination 
between its various organizations and activities. To 


260 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


assume the most cordial and sympathetic under¬ 
standing between the pastor and his young people 
goes without saying. He is their counselor and 
shepherd and “pal,” and they are his main depend¬ 
ence in a thousand ways. There is no greater 
tragedy in church life for everybody concerned than 
where such a relationship does not obtain. From 
our observation, however, such cases are rare in the 
Methodist Church. Young people can almost in¬ 
variably count upon him to go more than half way 
in establishing cordial whole-hearted team work. 

The question as to just what his relationship to 
them should be is not always easily solved. Should 
he take an active, public part, thus running the risk 
of depriving his own young people of the sense of 
responsibility and the chance of initiative? Or 
should he work wholly behind the scenes, where less 
spectacular helpfulness might be construed as lack 
of interest? 

Out of several scores of answers given by Leaguers 
themselves, these are typical: 

“I think the pastor’s place should be in training 
leaders, and thereby letting the leaders or young 
people do the active public work of the League.” 

“The pastor should be the hidden pusher. He 
should be the adviser and not the worker.” 

“The pastor should be just what he is—a pastor, 
a shepherd. He should stand by his League, and be 
a leader of the League, give advice, help plan the 
work and the meetings, frequent their activities, and 
be one with them. The pastor’s place is to train and 
develop youth, but also to stand by them when they 





FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


261 


are working out their work. Often he can save a 
young Leaguer from discouragement by being a pal 
with him.” 

“The pastor should be an overseer but not a leader. 
He should be behind the scenes and helping, but 
should attend meetings and advise when necessary.” 

“The pastor should be aggressive when there are 
any signs of letting down, always around, but in 
the background whenever he can. He should give 
Leaguers all the initiative possible.” 

“The pastor should be behind the scenes but be 
there.” 

“Behind the scenes, ready to bolster or help a 
weak point. Never a director but rather a quiet ad¬ 
viser and dynamo of enthusiasm.” 

These replies indicate something of what the 
young people expect of their pastor. What a wide- 
open door of real opportunity! Where that door 
is entered, the problem of the church and its young 
people is well on toward solution. 

2. The problem of relationship with the local 
church involves cooperation with other local church 
organizations, and an adequate understanding of 
the League’s peculiar place and contribution. 

The proper correlation of these various organiza¬ 
tions is a thing which the League has earnestly de¬ 
sired and eagerly sought; and, under sympathetic 
leadership, is no sort of rivalry or overlapping, but 
the most cordial cooperation, as scores of Leaguers 
testify in the questionnaires. 

To repeat somewhat, it should be called to mind 
that the Epworth League deals with a specialized 


262 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


group, and attempts to render a special service not 
performed elsewhere. Among the unique aspects of 
this service is one which has reference to the train¬ 
ing of the membership of the church. The Junior 
division deals with the preparatory members, its 
aim being to teach the boys and girls the history, 
organizations, teachings, and program of their 
church. 

When they come to the Senior League, young peo¬ 
ple have brought before them the various fields of 
the church, in missions, in social service, in reform, 
in the ministry—in all lines of endeavor in which 
the Methodist Church is engaged in promoting the 
Christian enterprise. These two things constitute 
the specialty of the League. 

On the other hand, the program of the Sunday 
school is community-wide and interdenominational, 
as it should be. Its material is not prepared for the 
Methodist Church alone. Thirteen different denomi¬ 
nations are using the Sunday-school literature of 
our Methodist Book Concern. It presents general 
Christian instruction, what the Christian life is, 
how to get into it, the relationship of the Bible to 
the Christian life. It is a program of broad Chris¬ 
tian culture most indispensable to the development 
of character in every age group from the Cradle Roll 
on to adult life. In the nature of the case, how¬ 
ever, such a school of religious education does not 
and cannot carry a denominational emphasis. 

It is just here that the Epworth League gears up 
with the Sunday school in the program of religious 
education. It supplements the general Christian 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


263 


teachings with that specific instruction about the 
Methodist Episcopal Church which is calculated to 
make this young Christian an efficient and under¬ 
standing young Methodist. 

Such correlation is not in any sense a rivalry or 
an overlapping at all, but is a most sane and nec¬ 
essary supplement. 

Furthermore, the League tends to offset the 
danger of clannishness and “the clique,” which 
might result where the Sunday-school grouping 
alone is followed. The most efficient method of in¬ 
struction calls for division into departments and 
classes, and the organized Sunday-school class has 
accomplished much. The Epworth League, how¬ 
ever, brings the entire group together again in wor¬ 
ship and play and work, and this aids in submerg¬ 
ing the clannish spirit beneath the spirit of unity 
of the entire group. 

The problem of the correlation of the various 
agencies working with the same age groups is 
largely a matter to be worked out in the local 
church, and where the distinctive contribution of 
each is properly understood, and the attitude of the 
leaders is sympathetic, correlation becomes an ac¬ 
complished fact. 

Much thought has been given to this subject re¬ 
cently by expert educators and religious workers. 
When the results of their investigations become 
available, it should greatly aid in the solution of the 
problem. 

3. The problem of relationship between the Ep¬ 
worth League and the local church must be said 


264 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


finally to depend upon both parties for solution. 
There is not only the question of tying the League 
more closely to the church, but that of interesting 
the church in League affairs. 

The former perhaps has received more attention. 
The League whose president attends the official 
board meetings and Quarterly Conference regularly 
will have a leader who will understand the work¬ 
ings of the church and be able to lead them in co¬ 
operation. He will be in position to keep before 
them the needs and opportunities of the church, 
and make them feel that their program is the whole 
program of the whole church. Such a vision will 
soon make clear the concrete ways of cooperation, 
such especially as attending the evening service and 
the prayer meeting, subscribing to the budget, sup¬ 
plying teachers for the Sunday school and workers 
for every other organization, and countless other 
services needed in a given situation. 

The problem of interesting the church in the 
League is one, however, upon which not so much is 
said. Yet a genuine, heartfelt, sympathetic inter¬ 
est on the part of the church toward its own young 
people, rather than an attitude of criticism, im¬ 
patience, and distrust, may prove to be the determin¬ 
ing factor in winning and holding them for the 
Kingdom. 

It should be remembered that the most effective 
method in bringing the church to this attitude is 
the evidence of works. The League chapter that 
makes for itself a vital place of usefulness in the 
church’s life, and which is really alive and doing 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


265 


things, will need no better advocate of its cause. 
Its deeds will speak for themselves. But even here 
a bit of publicity is in place. The reports of the 
chapter president to the official board and Quar¬ 
terly Conference offer a rich opportunity. They 
should be well prepared, breezy, and packed full of 
information. Posters may be displayed in the 
church vestibule representing the work done by the 
Epworth League. Items should be supplied fre¬ 
quently to the church bulletin of some League 
achievement. Parents, members of the official 
board, and others should be invited now and then 
to attend the Sunday evening meetings, and see what 
the young people are actually doing. Other 
methods will occur if once Leaguers are led to see 
that it is worth while to cultivate the interest and 
support and prayers of the church in their enter¬ 
prise. 

The process of establishing widespread relation¬ 
ships must begin nearest at home. The chapter 
which connects itself up with its own local church 
progress most helpfully will be in best position to 
extend its connections to more distant fields. 

II. The Epworth League and the District 

The step involved in widening the horizon of an 
Epworth Leaguer to include the district is one of no 
little significance. Our church is essentially a “con- 
nectional” church. Its great institutions and its 
benevolent enterprises, much of its impact upon 
society and its out-reach upon the world, are made 
possible because of that fact. The development of 


266 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


the “connectional” spirit is therefore the vital 
breath of-the church. Perhaps many Methodists 
to-day who have never caught the connectional view¬ 
point might not now be living under the blight of 
parochialism if they had been brought up in a 
League chapter that took active part in district 
affairs. 

The Epworth League is thoroughly Methodistic 
in its connectional spirit, and the district is the first 
connectional unit. It is here that youth may get 
his first training in what is an essential element of 
Methodism. If there were no other reason for a 
district organization than that, it would still serve 
a great need in the growing of that consciousness of 
wider relationship. 

But, of course, that is merely a by-product. The 
Epworth League has a tremendously big program 
of its own that makes the district necessary as a 
working unit. There is, first of all, the great need 
of extensive work. Only 63 per cent of all charges 
have Epworth League chapters. The young people 
in the other 37 per cent need the program of the 
Epworth League as greatly as do the others. No 
Epworthian who feels himself in debt to the League 
for its inspiration to him can think of those figures 
and feel entirely comfortable about them. He will 
want to help in some definite way to carry this 
crusade to every last Methodist youth than can be 
reached. 

The district organization offers him his oppor¬ 
tunity. It has been found that in the typical organ¬ 
ized district, the average number of charges having 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


267 


Leagues is 73 per cent, while in the unorganized 
district, the average is only 24 per cent. Appar¬ 
ently, if the young people of Methodism are to be 
reached with this evangel of Christ, the district 
must be utilized more than it has been, and every 
chapter ought to help make it possible. 

What has been said of extensive work is equally 
true of intensive . No chapter is working at its best. 
One Conference, which worked out the standard 
program into the form of an efficiency schedule, dis¬ 
covered that most of the chapters reporting had to 
be graded at from 25 per cent to 45 per cent, while 
the highest was only 84 per cent. It was not an 
accident that the highest percentages were attained 
by chapters from districts which had effective work¬ 
ing organizations. 

By either count the district renders a most valu¬ 
able service, and should receive hearty support from 
local chapters. Complaint is sometimes heard from 
a district secretary or treasurer, that letters are 
never answered, and that it is by hardest work that 
they secure cooperation from local cabinets. Here 
is a chance for a growing of that connectional spirit 
and that consciousness of relationship that makes 
answering of letters, sending in of reports, payment 
of dues, and attending rallies and conventions not 
a drudgery but a joy. 

III. The Epworth League and the Conference 

The next wider horizon to which the Epworthian 
is called is the Conference. Since, as a Methodist, 
he will all his life be thinking in terms of Confer- 


268 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


ence, it is a valuable part of his denominational 
training that he begin to do so as an Epworth 
Leaguer. The Conference organization is not some 
supermechanism that is imposed on the district and 
local League. It is, rather, a tool fashioned by them, 
and intended to be useful to them, in accomplish¬ 
ing certain work which they could not well do other¬ 
wise. Its machinery is simple, being formed by the 
joining together of the district cabinets, which in 
turn are elected by the young people themselves. 

The development of a Conference “consciousness” 
and the achieving of cooperation on so wide a scale 
has brought certain very beneficial results. There 
are some things that can be done only by such 
wholesale team work. The achievement described 
in Chapter VI in which the California Conference 
was able to make so notable a contribution to a 
great temperance victory was made possible by Con¬ 
ference organization. 

Perhaps the greatest single achievement in which 
the Conference has played a large part is in the de¬ 
velopment of the Epworth League Institute. While 
it is true that some Institutes are conducted by dis¬ 
tricts, or groups of districts, and others are con¬ 
ducted by State organizations, most of them have 
been fostered by the Conference. Large credit, of 
course, must be given to the Institute Department 
of the Central Office, for the amazing growth of the 
Institute movement. But the Conference has been 
the real agency for initiating, fostering, and cor¬ 
relating the new Institutes. 

Here is one of the most phenomenal and potential 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


269 


movements in the entire church in recent years. 
Beginning back in 1906, when the first one was 
organized, the Institute idea soon took the church 
by storm. In 1910 there were seven; in 1915 there 
were nineteen; in 1920 there were seventy-five; in 
1923 there were one hundred and twenty-eight, with 
an attendance of over thirty-five thousand. And the 
end is not yet. No less striking than growth in 
numbers has been the development and standard¬ 
ization of the program. Here is a Providential 
movement so limitless in its fruit already borne and 
in its rich promise of the future that every Meth¬ 
odist has reason to thank God for inspiring it. It 
has surely come into the Kingdom for such a time 
as this. 

Further evidence of the need and value of a Con¬ 
ference organization is found when one considers 
other matters that are of Conference-wide interest, 
such as: 

Conference Anniversaries. If these occasions 
have been known to be rather perfunctory affairs, 
sometimes, with very few young people present, and 
even but a thin sprinkling of preachers, that does 
not furnish a good reason why it should continue 
to be so. The wide-awake Conference Epworth 
League sees in this occasion an opportunity to rally 
the forces of young people, and to give impetus to 
the whole Conference program. The spring Confer¬ 
ence has before it no less significant a program than 
the fall Conference. While the latter faces the 
whole schedule of the winter’s work, the former 
looks forward to spring and summer activities and 


270 


YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 


the Institutes. What a unique opportunity, not 
only to rally the young people, but to enlist pastors 
and laymen in the year-round constructive program 
of “young people’s work for young people”! To 
properly prepare for such an anniversary, both as 
to program and as to attendance and “follow-up,” 
there is no agency so well adapted to the task as the 
Conference organization. 

Older Boys’ Conferences. The writer recently at¬ 
tended an Older Boys’ Conference under the 
auspices of a County Y. M. C. A. A group of one 
hundred and fifty higli-school boys came together 
for three days of frank, free discussion of boys’ 
problems from a Christian viewpoint, under com¬ 
petent leadership. It made a tremendous impres¬ 
sion upon those boys, and was productive of great 
good. 

The Conference Epworth League might well co¬ 
operate with the Sunday schools in engineering an 
Older Boys’ Conference in connection with the ses¬ 
sion of the Annual Conference, or at some other ap¬ 
propriate time and place. There is a decided ad¬ 
vantage now and then in affording to boys a chance 
to meet by themselves and discuss their own prob¬ 
lems, and the Epworth League is an appropriate 
agency through which this can be brought about. 
And what is said of the boys may apply equally 
well to conferences of Older Girls. Yet to do this 
successfully requires a wider cooperation and leader¬ 
ship than is possible in the local chapter, or even in 
the district. 

The Development of the Weak District Organiza- 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


271 


tion . A further responsibility of the Conference 
Epworth League is in strengthening the district 
work. As previously stated, the district is the prac¬ 
tical working unit, and it is not by any means the 
purpose of the Conference Epworth League to usurp 
the functions of the district. Unfortunately, how¬ 
ever, it sometimes happens that the district ma¬ 
chinery breaks down and fails to perform its func¬ 
tion. Were there no Conference organization to 
come to the rescue in such a case, that district would 
probably lie as a fallow field, uncultivated, and the 
work among young people would bring forth a 
very meager harvest. Vigorous action on the part 
of the Conference League would probably be suffi¬ 
cient to enlist a new force of laborers, and the situa¬ 
tion would be saved. 

The Standardization of the League Year . Many 
Conference organizations are rendering a needed 
service in developing a unified, standard program 
adapted to local conditions. 

III. The Epworth League and the Area 

A comparatively recent development, which doubt¬ 
less is destined to receive more emphasis in the 
future, is the organization of the Area, for pur¬ 
poses of Epworth League promotion. The supervi¬ 
sion of the church by episcopal areas is growing in 
favor, and the Epworth League is proving itself to 
be thoroughly Methodistic in conforming its organ¬ 
ization to that of the church, all the way down the 
line. 

The plan for Area organization of the Epworth 


272 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


League is very simple and logical. The cabinets of 
the various Conferences are brought together and 
from their number is formed an Area cabinet. If 
it has been proved profitable to formulate Area pro¬ 
grams and develop an “Area consciousness” in for¬ 
warding other interests of the church, it will doubt¬ 
less prove increasingly so in the affairs of the Ep- 
worth League. And again the League will have the 
honor and privilege of preparing the youth of the 
church for these larger connectional responsibilities. 


IV. The Epworth League and the Central Office 

A group of Leaguers recently traveled nearly 
twenty-five hundred miles to attend a Student Vol¬ 
unteer Convention. On their return trip they 
stopped off in Chicago for the chief purpose of pay¬ 
ing a visit to the Central Office of the Epworth 
League. Heretofore it had been a name only. 
“Seven forty Rush Street” had become a familiar 
formula, but was little more than that. They found 
The Methodist Book Concern Building, and took the 
elevator to the third floor. It was thrilling to open 
the door into a big room full of clicking typewriters, 
and to feel the electric atmosphere of the “Great 
Central Exchange” maintaining immediate connec¬ 
tions with thirty-two different countries of the 
globe. 

They were given a cordial reception such as every 
Leaguer receives when he puts in his appearance at 
his own headquarters. They were fascinated as they 
were shown the maps, the charts, the stockrooms, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


273 


and files, the exhibits of textbooks and of literature. 
They were inspired with new confidence in our 
League leadership when they met various members 
of the staff and were conducted through the depart¬ 
mental offices. But, most of all, they were con¬ 
scious of almost a violent pushing back of horizons, 
an incredible widening of vision, and the necessity 
for a complete new appraisal of the vastness and 
the significance of their own League enterprise. 
They seemed to feel the throbbing, pulsating life of 
youth around the world. They could almost feel the 
earth tremble with the tread of a mighty host march¬ 
ing forth to world conquest for the Christ of youth. 
They felt they had never understood what it really 
meant to be an Epworth Leaguer until then. 

Kipling has somewhere a line which asks what 
knows a man of England who knows England only. 
What can the man who lives in some little hamlet in 
England or some isolated suburb of a city know 
of the “great empire whose outposts are on the seven 
seas?” He must go abroad in order to know Eng¬ 
land. He must travel either in fact or imagination 
until he catches a vision of the far-flung empire 
before he can really appreciate his citizenship. 

What can he know of the Epworth League who 
has seen no more than the little struggling chapter 
in Shingletown or Hay Springs? He needs to be 
conscious of his fellowship with the Leaguers of 
New England, and Mexico, and the Philippines, and 
China and India, and Italy, and Tunis. He needs 
to burst the limits of his horizon until he lives in 
the same w r orld with the youth of every race and 


274 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


nation. Then he is beginning to be qualified to be 
an Epworthian indeed. 

The Central Office is the great means thus of 
“connecting up” the young people with their genera¬ 
tion and their world. It is not an autocratic, im¬ 
perial palace, where cut-and-dried plans and pro¬ 
grams are handed down for local chapters to auto¬ 
matically put into effect. It is not even a Com- 
mander-in-Chief’s Headquarters, where the whole 
plan of campaign is mapped out and orders issued 
that must be followed to the letter. 

The Epworth League is a great democracy. Its 
priceless asset is its own spontaneous life. What¬ 
ever of machinery there is is of its own creation, 
and intended not to smother and stifle initiative, 
but to provide effective expression for it. In most 
admirable fashion the Central Office has held true 
to that purpose. It counts itself a servant of youth 
and of the church, furnishing inspiration and direc¬ 
tion, and establishing those widespread relation¬ 
ships so essential to performing a world task. 

What happened to those student volunteers would 
happen to every other Leaguer who could have the 
privilege # of the same experience. But while that 
is not within the reach of all, there is no law I know 
of against using the mails freely for that purpose. 
The potential usefulness of the Central Office has 
scarcely begun to be realized by multitudes of chap¬ 
ters. It is not merely a question of securing litera¬ 
ture and suggestions from them, but of furnishing 
them with your own newest and most workable 
ideas. When some new plan has been found helpful, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


275 


report it. When request for help is made, give it. 
Greater team work on the part of all would speed 
up our enterprise amazingly, and our Christ would 
begin to get his chance at the hearts of youth. 

Y. The Epworth League and Other Young 
People's Societies 

The Epworth League can be properly understood 
only as it is considered a part of a much wider move¬ 
ment. Many important developments are placed to 
the credit of the nineteenth century, but we venture 
to say that none has greater importance to Chris¬ 
tianity than the beginning of the modern Youth 
Movement. One after another organizations took 
form, as an expression of that movement: the Y. M. 
C. A. was founded in 1844; the Y. W. C. A. in 1877; 
the Christian Endeavor Society in 1881; the Stu¬ 
dent Volunteer Movement in 1888; the Epworth 
League in 1889; the Baptist Young People’s Union 
in 1891—not to mention many other smaller so¬ 
cieties. 

The question is often asked by young Methodists 
as well as others why Methodist youth formed their 
own denominational society instead of becoming a 
part of the great interdenominational organization 
known as the Christian Endeavor. Would it not 
have had a broadening influence and have saved us 
from the charge of being narrow and exclusive? 

It should be cordially and gratefully acknowl¬ 
edged that the Christian Endeavor has performed 
a high mission, and is doing so still. But the his¬ 
tory of Methodism in the last thirty-five years, as 


276 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


well as the story of the Epworth League itself, fur¬ 
nish ample justification for the course we have fol¬ 
lowed. 

The Epworth League was born of the conviction 
that the young people’s society should be built into 
the organic life of the church, and that it should be 
utilized as a means of denominational training and 
emphasis. To have its young people fed upon a 
diet of literature coming from sources outside our 
own church, which often failed to emphasize the 
aspects of history and religious experience which 
Methodists held dear; to have the plans of the so¬ 
ciety formulated by an agency entirely outside the 
denomination, with little if any reference to other 
departments of our church work; and to expose the 
welfare of the whole denomination to the chance of 
failure of the average church to provide the denomi¬ 
national training on its own initiative—all this was 
unsatisfactory to Methodists, and seemed to make it 
imperative that our young people’s work be deter¬ 
mined by responsible members of our own church 
and made to harmonize with its general aims. 1 

Is any apology needed for such denominational 
emphasis? Narrow sectarianism is coming in for 
its share of pummeling to-day as never before, and 
it deserves all that it has so far received, and more. 
But denominational loyalty does not necessarily in¬ 
volve narrow sectarianism, any more than patriotic 
love of one’s country involves a narrow nationalism 
and a hatred of other countries than one’s own. So 

*See The Development of the Young People's Movement , 
by Frank O. Erb, p. 74ff. 



FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


277 


long as the work of the world’s redemption must be 
carried forward by denominations (and the day of 
organic union of all churches into one united world 
church is not in the immediate future, to say the 
least), then it will be the duty of each denomination 
to perform its share of the task under commission 
of Christ with the highest possible degree of effec¬ 
tiveness. Such effectiveness is undoubtedly depend¬ 
ent largely upon the training of youth. 

To make the training of youth narrowly sectarian 
would mean the betrayal of the ultimate cause of 
unity in the Kingdom. But to fail in the task of 
fitting youth for the most effective possible invest¬ 
ment of their lives in some denomination would 
mean eventual suicide for the cause of the Kingdom 
itself. 

If training in the Epworth League sometimes 
leaves Methodist young people in doubt what other 
denominations are doing, the Christian Endeavor is 
in danger of leaving its youth in doubt as to what 
any denomination is doing. 

A striking evidence of the effectiveness of the two 
methods was seen in the Methodist Centenary and 
the Interchurch World Movement. The former suc¬ 
ceeded in large part at least because it had back of 
it a generation of youth having received denomina¬ 
tional training in the Epworth League. The failure 
of the latter, while perhaps due to a variety of 
causes, may suggest the weakness of mere interde¬ 
nominational training that is not harnessed up to 
some definite agency. 

A word must be said, however, to the glory of the 


278 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


Christian Endeavor. It has exerted great influence 
in helping to break down denominational prejudice 
and bigotry, and in paving the way for more cordial 
interchurch cooperation. For that we are truly 
grateful, and in it we should increasingly share. 
Oneness of the Church of Christ, if not organically, 
at least in spirit and effort, should be the earnest 
prayer of every disciple of his. And the League 
should stand ready to cooperate so far as possible in 
every good movement that leads to that end. 

VI. The Epworth League’s Largest 
Relationship 

We have spoken of some of the relationships into 
which the League must enter in “connecting up” 
with its world. There is one indispensable rela¬ 
tionship we must be perpetually sure of, else all 
these others will be futile. We must be sure of re¬ 
taining the leadership of Him whose we are and 
whom we serve. Our movement was born in the 
hearts of men who were consciously led of His 
Spirit. It has been carried forward these years by 
men and women of like consecration. The future of 
the movement will depend upon how closely we fol¬ 
low Him. 

The question of supreme concern in personal life, 
in chapter activities, in district or Conference 
organization, must be this: Are we doing team 
work with Him? Are the plans we are making in¬ 
spired by the desire to promote an organization, or 
to further His plans? Are we looking at the world 
through His eyes, seeing the needs as He sees them, 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


279 


solving the problems with His mind and spirit, offer- 
ing ourselves as He offered himself? 

That is the call He is making to us. Youth of 
Methodism, what response will you make? Your 
own future will depend upon it. Your chums, your 
church, your community, your country, your Christ, 
all have a stake in your reply. May the answer be 
in the words of the poet: 

“I heard Him call, 

‘Come, follow/ that was all. 

My gold grew dim, 

My heart went after Him. 

I rose and followed—that was all. 

Who would not follow 
If they heard Him call?” 


CHAPTER VIII 

The Epworth Leaguers Widespread Relationships 

Suggested Outline for Teaching 

Introduction: Goodness in an individual and in 
a League chapter as in a telephone, consists in estab¬ 
lishing widespread relationships. The time to cure 
the curse of provincialism is in youth, and the Ep¬ 
worth League may render a great service in help¬ 
ing to broaden their horizons. 

• » 

I. The Epworth League and the Local Church. 

A close and integral relationship between the 
church and League is normal. 

1. The relationship of pastor to the League. 


280 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


2. The relationship of the other local organ¬ 

izations to the Epworth League. 

3. The double problem of tying the League 

up to the church, and interesting the 
church in the League. 

II. The Epworth League and the District. 

1. The place of the district in developing the “con- 

nectional” spirit. 

2. The importance of the district in extensive 

work. 

3. The importance of the district in intensive 

work. 

III. The Epworth League and the Conference. 

1. The value of the Conference in the growth of 

connectional spirit. 

2. The relation of the Conference to the Institute 

Movement. 

3. Other Activities of Conference-wide interest 

such as: 

Conference Anniversaries. 

Older Boys’ Conferences. 

Developing weak District organizations. 
Standardizing the Program. 

IV. The Epworth League and the Area. 

V. The Epworth League and the Central Office. 

1. The Central Office as a means of connecting up 

the Leaguer with his world. 

2. The Central Office and League initiative. 


FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


281 


3. The need for more cooperation between chap¬ 
ter and Central Office. 

VI. The Epworth League and Other Young Peo¬ 
ple's Societies. 

1. The Epworth League a part of a great youth 

movement. 

2. Reasons for the Epworth League as separate 

from the Christian Endeavor. 

3. Need for developing the spirit of interdenomi¬ 

national cooperation. 

VII. The Epworth League's Most Vital Relation¬ 
ship. 

1. Need of retaining the vital leadership of 

Christ. 

2. The call of Christ to the youth of to-day. 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 

1. Discuss the value of “connectionalism” in the 
church. What are some of the fruits? Why is it 
desirable to promote that spirit? 

2. Is your chapter open to the criticism of being 
a clannish and isolated group, with very little aware¬ 
ness of relationship with the rest of the local church ? 
If so, what can be done to make it a vital part of 
the local church program? 

3. What, in your judgment, would be the ideal 
relationship between the local Sunday school and 
Epworth League? Are they properly correlated in 
your church, so as not to compete with but to sup- 


282 


YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK 


plement each other in their work with the same 
groups of young people? 

4. What are some of the gains to be derived from 
the connecting of the local chapter with district, 
Conference, and Area? Gains to the chapter itself? 
Gains to the general work of young people? Do you 
think that your chapter shows proper balance be¬ 
tween chapter interests and outside interests as 
measured both by giving and by activities? What 
should be considered the proper balance? 

5. What use should a League chapter make of 
the Central Office? Discuss the relative place of 
local initiative and freedom to meet local needs, with 
the value of team work with all other Leagues under 
Central Office leadership. Is it possible to avoid be¬ 
ing Bolsheviks without heed to Central-Office plans, 
on the one hand, and colorless, subservient, machine¬ 
like automatons on the other? What is the whole¬ 
some democratic and “connectional” middle ground ? 

6. Do you think Methodist youth have been justi¬ 
fied in maintaining their own denominational so¬ 
ciety instead of joining in with an interdenomina¬ 
tional society like the Christian Endeavor? Why? 

7. How can the League best encourage and train 
denominational loyalty without developing a nar¬ 
row sectarian spirit ? 

8. Give earnest and prayerful consideration to the 
questions whether your cabinet, your chapter—your¬ 
self—are giving absolute preeminence to the per¬ 
sonal leadership of Jesus Christ in every detail of 
the League enterprise, that it may be his, every whit, 
for the extension of his plans for a Christian world. 


APPENDIXES 


I 

OUTLINE SUMMARY OF EPWORTH LEAGUE 
COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION 

(As suggested in the foregoing chapters) 

Pastor 

President 

First Vice-President 

1. Committee on Devotional Meetings. 

2. Committee on Spiritual Welfare of Mem¬ 

bers. 

3. Committee on Evangelism. 

4. Committee on Junior League and Life 

Work. 

Second Vice-President 

1. Committee on Mission Study. 

2. Committee on Reading Clubs. 

3. Committee on World Program. 

4. Committee on Stewardship and Tithing. 

Third Vice-President 

1. Committee on Mercy and Help. 

2. Committee on Relief and Institutions. 

3. Committee on Community Interests. 

4. Committee on Civic Matters. 

283 


284 


APPENDIXES 


Fourth Vice-President 

1. Committee on Recreational Program. 

2. Committee on Culture and Epworth 

Herald. 

3. Committee on Membership. 

4. Committee on Institutes. 

Secretary 

1. Historian Committee. 

2. Committee on Publicity. 

Treasurer 

1. Committee on Twenty-four Hour Day. 

2. Committee on Collections. 

Superintendent of Second or Intermediate Chapter 
Same organization as above. 

Junior League Superintendent 

(Working with Pastor and First Department 
Committee on Junior League and Life Work.)' 


II 

SUGGESTED PLAN FOR GRADING AND 
CORRELATING THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 

Plan worked out and in use in the First Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Salem, Ore. 

First Chapter Epworth League 

(Young People above High-School age, including 
College students.) 


APPENDIXES 


285 


Second Chapter Epworth League 

(Senior High-School Students—10th, 11th and 
12th grades or those of similar age—Supervised 
by a Superintendent or Counselor from the 
First Chapter.) 

Third Chapter Epworth League 

(Junior High-School students—7th, 8th and 9th 
grades. 

Supervised by Superintendent or Counselor from 
First Chapter.) 

Junior League 

(Boys and girls below Junior High-School age— 
in charge of a Junior League Superintendent.) 

It will be noted that these age groupings are 
identical with those of the Sunday school and the 
public schools. The personnel of the Sunday school 
and Epworth League groups is practically the 
same, and a satisfactory plan of correlation is being 
worked out. Week-day activities of evangelism, mis¬ 
sion study, service, recreation, etc., are carried out 
according to the Epworth League program. 




INDEX 


A 

Adolescence, the period of opportunity, 93 
Adolescence, the period of danger, 30-31 
Adult viewpoint in pre-League days, 35 
Adventure, the Epworth League an, 13 
American Bankers’ Association quoted, 52 
Amusements, dangers of harmful, 222 
Amusements, changing attitude of the church regarding, 
20, 224 

Area organization, 271 


B 

Babson, Roger, quoted, 91, 161, 191-192 

Bible Study, goldmining in the Scriptures, 122ff. 

C 

Cabinet Meetings, Montana plan, 71 

Cabinet Meetings, other plans for, 72 

California Epworth League and the Wright bill, 179ff. 

Central Office a central exchange, 272 

Central Office a servant of youth and church, 274 

Century Magazine quoted, 145 

Character-Building, the great need of the world, 92 
Christian Conscience, Need of creating a, 185 
Christian Endeavor, founding of, 35-37 
Christian Endeavor, relationship to League, 275ff. 
Church, a channel of service, 200ff. 

Church, need for, 52 

Church, Relationship to Epworth League, 78, 258ff. 
Citizenship and the Christian conscience, 191 
Citizenship as a channel cf social service, 196ff. 

Coffin, H. S., quoted, 185 
Committee Organization 
First Department, 114 
Second Department, 164-5 
Third Department, 204 
Fourth Department, 236, 237 
Secretary’s Committees, 81 
Treasurer’s Committees, 85 

287 


288 


INDEX 


Community Service, a channel of sympathy, 195f. 
Community Service, suggestions for, 205f. 

Conference Anniversaries, 269 
Conference Epworth League, activities, 268f. 

Conference Organization, plan of, 268 
Crusade for youth, urgency of, 29-31 
Cultural agency, Methods for making League a, 245f. 
Cultural opportunities of Fourth Department, 224f. 

D 

Democratic Program of League, 18 
Democratic purpose of Central office, 274 
Denominational Training in the Epworth League, 262, 276 
Devotional Life, Cultivating the, 103 
Devotional Meeting, objectives of, 105f. 

Devotional Meeting Committee, 114 
District organization, need for, 265f. 

District, Strengthening the weak, 270 

E 

Educational Program enriching the church, 47f. 
Educational Program of League not duplication, 17 
Epworth Herald promotion, 245f. 

Epworth League and Other Young People’s Societies, 275 
Epworth League enriching life of church 
In Leadership, 40 
In Christian Missions, 44 
In Religious Education, 47 
In Evangelism, 50 
Epworth League, founding of, 36f. 

Epworth League Institute, educational value of, 48 
Epworth League Institute, phenomenal growth of, 269 
Epworth League Institute Promotion, 237f. 

Epworth League’s correlation with the Sunday school, 261f. 
Evangelism, a First Department responsibility, 100 
Evangelistic Committee, Methods for, 114 
Evangelistic Emphasis, 19 

Evangelistic program enriching the church, 50 
Expressional Program, 23 


F 

Faunce, President quoted, 256 
First Department, general discussion, 91ff. 
First Department, major activities of, lOOff. 
First Department Methods, 113ff. 


INDEX 


289 


First Vice-President, his task, tools, and methods, 112ff. 
Fourth Department, directing investment of leisure, 232 
Fourth Department, general discussion of, 212ff. 

Fourth Department, organization of, 236, 237 
Fourth Vice President, task, tools, and methods, 112ff. 
Frank, Glenn, quoted, 145 

G 

Gates, Herbert W., quoted, 221 
Gilder, Richard Watson, quoted, 143 
Good Samaritan, New version of, 193 
Gospel Team, a new development, 109 
Gospel Team Experiences, 128 
Gospel Team, Methods of organizing, 125 

H 

Hood River Apples, illustrating fruit of Epworth League, 38 

I 

Illiteracy, moral and religious, 16 
Industrial Problem, 190 
Interchurch Survey of Indiana, 48 

J 

Junior League, a First Department responsibility, 108 

K 

Kidd, Benjamin, quoted, 35, 53 

L 

Leadership Enlistment, Epworthian opinions on, 27 
Leadership Enlistment, League’s enrichment of church in, 
4 Off. 

Lee, Joseph, quoted, 219 
Life Service Commission, Figures from, 42 
Life Work, Answering the question of, 25 
Life Work, Direct and indirect help in choosing, 110 
Lloyd-George quoted, 52 
Local Chapter 
Difficulties of, 60 
Importance of, 59 
Leadership of, 68 
Objectives of, 61 
Organization of, 65 
Working Principles of, 62 


290 


INDEX 


M 

McDowell, Bishop Wm. F., quoted, 142 
Membership, Recruiting, 249 

Missionary Education, educating world Christians, 156 
Missionary Education, Extensive program of, 45 
Missionary Enterprise 

Audacious faith of it, 140 
Colossal size of it, 138 
League’s response to it, 155ff. 

Resistless call of it, 150 
Superlative need of it, 144 
Missionary Reading, how to encourage, 167 
Missions—the essence of statesmanship, 44ff. 

Mission Study Classes, suggestions for, 165 
Montana Plan for Four-in-one Meeting, 71 
Morning Watch, place of in character-building, 103 
Morning Watch, suggestions concerning, 121 

0 

Older Boys’ Conferences and the League, 270 
Outlines for Teaching 
Chapter I, 32 
Chapter II, 54 
Chapter III, 87 
Chapter IV, 131 
Chapter V, 170 
Chapter VI, 207 
Chapter VII, 252 
Chapter VIII, 279 

P 

Pastor’s relationship to Epworth League, 259ff. 

Play, an indispensable value to be utilized, 217ff. 

Play, dangers of when prostituted to wrong use, 222 
Play, Church’s change of front regarding, 19f., 224 
Play, Suggestions for directing, 239 
Poverty, and its relation to human welfare, 188 
Powell, Warren T., quoted, 223, 239, 241 
President, task, tools, and methods, 68ff. 

Q 

Questions and Topics for Discussion 
Chapter I, 33 
Chapter II, 56 
Chapter III, 89 
Chapter IV, 134 


INDEX 


291 


Chapter V, 173 
Chapter VI, 210 
Chapter VII, 253 
Chapter VIII, 281 

R 

Rally Day, suggestions for, 74 
Recreations, director of, 239 
Recreational Program, a year’s, 241ff. 

Recreational Program of Epworth League, 20 
Religious Education, enriching church’s program of, 47 

S 

Second Department Methods, 165ff. 

Second Department, organization of, 164, 165 
Second Department, response to task of winning a world, 155 
Second Vice-President, task, tools, and methods, 164ff. 
Secretary, his task, tools, and methods, 79ff. 

Sickness, the Christian duty of preventing, 190 
Smith, Roy L., quoted, 188 

Social Sympathy, a needed preliminary to service, 179 
Soper, Professor E. D., quoted, 143 
Stewardship Enlistment, suggestions for, 168 
Stewardship, enriching the church through, 46 
Stewardship, the vehicle for winning the world, 159 
Summer months, Activities of, 77. 243 

Sunday school’s need for supplemental help of League, 4 v 7 
Sunday school’s relationship to Epworth League pro¬ 
gram, 2 6 Iff. 

Sunday school’s value to youth, 14 

T 

Third Department, a channel of practical service, 195 
Third Department, general discussion of, 175ff. 

Third Department Organization, 204 

Third Department, self-starters for, 204 

Third Vice-President, task, tools, and methods, 203ff. 

Tithing, a spiritual privilege to be learned in youth, 160 

Treasurer’s Committees, 85 

Treasurer’s task, tools, and methods, 83ff. 

Twenty-four hour day plan, 158 

V 

\ersteeg, John M., quoted, 201 

Vocational Guidance a First Department responsibility, llOff. 


292 


INDEX 


W 

Wilson, Woodrow, quoted, 52 
Win-My-Chum Campaign, methods for, 114ff. 

Win-My-Chum Principles illustrated, 101 
World Program of League, a vital part of missionary en¬ 
terprise, 47 

World Program of League, how to keep before members, 167 

Y 

Year’s Program, formulation of, 74 
Year’s Program of Recreation, 241ff. 

Year’s Program, standardization of, 271 
Youth, Achievements of, 41 

Youth, Importance of for character-building, 93 
Youth, its place in missionary enterprise, 152ff. 

Youth, needs and characteristics of, 16ff. 

Youth’s play and the achievements of to-morrow, 221 
Youth’s response to the service appeal, 175ff. 










































































































































































































































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